


Trost Landing

by tscSNK (tsc)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horror, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Belts, Chains, Child Abuse, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Face-Fucking, Handcuffs, Kidnapping, Lies, M/M, Physical Abuse, Psychological Horror, Psychological Torture, Rape, Rape/Non-con Elements, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Violence, Suicidal Thoughts, The abuse is not between Eren and Levi, Verbal Abuse, Whipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-07-26
Packaged: 2018-01-25 00:27:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 12
Words: 48,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1622420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsc/pseuds/tscSNK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a fire devastated their apartment, Levi and Eren move into a new housing community on the outskirts of town.  However, after a little while, things don't turn out as happily-ever-after as they had planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Eight Months Before**

It happened so fast that it was almost as if it were a dream. A terrible, terrible nightmare. Something I still wish I could wake up from.

There was black smoke billowing through the halls of the apartment while the bells were ringing so loud to the point where my head was pounding, and that it just sounded like one solid tone. The sprinklers were spraying cold water trying to keep the fire and smoke down while we all escaped, and in the confusion, things were breaking and people were screaming, dogs were howling and babies were crying. Outside, the sirens were loud and the lights were flashing bright across the black sky.

There was absolutely no time to grab large belongings. A jacket that had been on the chair I was sitting on, a laptop that I had been working on in one hand and a two-month-old three-legged puppy in the other.

It wasn’t until I was sure I was safe, the dog was safe and my boyfriend was safe (albeit, crying on his cellphone) that I looked up to the apartment to see the entire top floor collapsing in on itself.

We lost everything that we had worked hard for. We were left with nothing but our health. But I guess that is all one could really ask for.

—————

**Three Months Before**

The road was a tough one, but we had finally been approved to move into a house in a new development that had just opened up on the outskirts of town called Trost Landing. It sounded like some uppity rich, high-end gated community, but so far it was just yet another housing development for the lower-middle class working folk. The paperwork had been squared away, the money had been sent off and I found myself staring up at the two storey house that I now owned with my husband-to-be. I’d be lying if I said I was a bit nervous about it considering we’d only lived in our shitty apartment for about a year until the fire happened, but the house was so beautiful that it made up for it. We were going to buy a house one day anyway, the day just arrived sooner than we had both anticipated.

Thank you, insurance!

The architect had taken great care in filling in all of our needs, which really was not a long list. We lucked out with finding the lot while it was still under construction, and when we had submitted our bid on the house, we were able to discuss things with the builder. Of course, our biggest concern was Erwin, our three-legged golden retriever. He had a condition when he was born a year ago that ended up with him losing his right front leg, and as much as he has gotten along fine thus far, we felt that the bigger he got, the harder it would be on his remaining limbs. So the front porch and the back patio were both given ramps alongside the stairs for the pup to get in and out of the house. The stairs inside were another story, and something that we were still going to have to work on.

The outside of the house was a plain white with black trimmings, which matched all the other houses on the small block. The neighbourhood was still rather empty, as the houses were still being built in the area. I’d seen the lot when it was still empty many times before driving in and out of town, and I had heard stories of there being a military base that had been met with a traumatic end. But stories will be stories, and you can’t know what is really real. Some of the tales were pretty believable, while others were just complete garbage.

“These boxes are the last of what is in the truck, sir.”

I jumped from where I was standing on the front lawn and turned around, turning my head up to look at a man with dirty blonde hair and a scruffy face. He gave me a small smile before heading up the path with his cart of boxes, using the ramp to take them into the house with ease.

He returned within the minute and threw the cart back into the truck. I watched as he shut the door and moved to the front of the truck, pulling out a clipboard and walking back to me, holding it out with a pen in his other hand.

“I just need you to sign the bottom of the page and we will get out of your hair.” he stated as I took the clipboard and pen. My eyes skimmed the page before falling onto the line where I had to sign. I quickly scribbled my name and handed back the items as the man in front of me sniffed. I watched as the man’s brow furrowed slightly, though it had been so fast that had I blinked, I’d have missed it. His face softened as he looked back to me. “We’ll charge your card as soon as we get back to the shop. Have a nice night!”

And with that, he turned on his heel and went back to the truck, yelling something to the man that had taken the drivers seat.

“Thank you!” I called out just before he slammed the door. As they drove away, a hand waved out of the passenger side window and I took that as my queue to finally go inside and find the boy who had been hiding inside most of the day.

I walked up the path and into the house, closing the door behind me. The sun had started to set and it was starting to get dark. I flicked on the light in the foyer and kicked off my shoes, scrunching my nose at the sight of the floor. After boxes were unpacked, I was going to be on my hands and knees scrubbing the hard wood floors back to their pristine conditions.

But that was nothing to worry about just yet, as painful as it was to look at.

I shuffled through the house, looking to the right into the living room only to find boxes. I furrowed my brow and continued into the house further down the hall until I entered the kitchen. I grinned as I found Erwin laying in front of the sliding glass door in the last ray of sunshine before it hide behind the trees. He was panting happily as he looked up at me, as if he was smiling.

I turned my head as I heard dishes being stacked on the counter and found Eren pulling plates out of one box, and a wet rag sitting on the counter beside the plates.

“I figured I’d get a head start in here, since plates and forks and knives are kind of important.” he explained, stepping up onto a stool and grabbing the rag to wipe out the bottom shelf of the cupboard. I smiled to myself as I watched him work, meticulously getting the corners as he knew I’d be going through doing the exact same thing tomorrow. He knew how clean I liked keeping things, and he was perfect in doing it without me saying a word.

Hell, he was perfect anyway.

I stepped forward and leaned on the counter which sort of acted like a dividing wall between the kitchen and the sitting area. I rested my head in my hands and watched as Eren lifted the stack of dinner plates and placed them carefully on the bottom shelf, followed by the smaller plates sitting beside them.

I slinked around the counter after I was sure he had no more breakable objects in reach and moved to stand behind him, wrapping my arms around his body awkwardly as he still stood on the stool. I pressed my face to the small of his back and I heard him chuckle.

“Let’s go make the bed.” I mumbled quietly, nuzzling his back. “It’s been a long day for both of us. We can order in some pizza and sleep and unpack tomorrow.”

As much as I hated leaving boxes scattered around the house and eating greasy food in bed, my entire body ached from moving boxes and furniture all day that I couldn’t bring myself to care.

Eren wiggled slightly and I loosened my grip on him to let him step down from the stool. He looked down at my face and brought his hand up to brush against my cheek. He leaned over and let his lips meet mine momentarily before pulling away.

“You look exhausted. I’ll order some pizza, you go upstairs and find the linens and I’ll meet you up there in a minute.”

Nodding once, I turned around and made my way back to the front of the house to go up the stairs. I moved slowly as my legs continued to ache the more I stayed on my feet. From moving heavy things, to skipping lunch and not having had food since the crack of dawn, my body was taking a hit. I made it to the top landing and turned right to the master bedroom. It was a light grey colour on the walls, which went nice with our brand new black stained wood dressers along the walls. On the wall to the left of the door was a walk in closet, and to the right was the en suite, where we had a jacuzzi installed as a gift to ourselves. The brand new four-poster bed sat opposite the door, right in the middle under a row of curtain-less windows. As much as it made me uneasy to sleep without curtains, there was no way I was about to get into it at that moment.

I looked around the room until my eyes met with the box that read “LINENS” in large black print across the side. I hurried over, and with the keys I retrieved from my back pocket, I sliced through the packing tape and started to pull out the brand new packages of sheets.

I got started right away in putting the fitted sheet over the mattress, followed by the top sheet. It wasn’t until I was fighting with the pillowcases that Eren popped into the room.

“We are so far out of town that our regular pizza place won’t deliver to us.” he said, furrowing his brow with a frown. “I did find one though, so food is on it’s way.” he added after, moving over to me to help me with the pillow cases.

We continued to make the bed in silence, and as soon as we were done, I fell forward and collapsed on the comforter.

“I feel so worn out.” I muttered, which got a chuckle out of Eren.

“You really didn’t have to help move the furniture. That is what the movers were for, Levi.” he said quietly, sitting beside me and moving his hand through my hair gently.

“I know… But I didn’t want them to fuck up our brand new shit. We paid a lot of money and I didn’t want scratches on anything.”

Eren stayed quiet, but I knew he was nodding. His hands continued to comb through my hair, which was something he did to relax me and, in turn, something I am pretty sure relaxed him as well.

We both jumped, however, when the doorbell rang loudly downstairs.

“That’s pizza. I’ll be back, you stay here.” he said, bouncing up off of the bed.

“Bring napkins!” I called out after, getting a noise back from him to let me know that he had in fact heard me.

After Eren had left the room, I slid back off the bed to remove my shirt, pants and socks. I really could have used a shower, but with being as tired as I was, I wasn’t about to chance it. Everything was already filthy and I knew there was no escaping the grime just yet. It was only for one night, as starting tomorrow things would be back in tip top shape.

I folded my clothes and set them on the top of one of the dressers before moving back to the bed. I pulled back the comforter and crawled into my side and pulled up the blanket. I sat back against the pillow and sighed, content. The more I continued to look around the room, the better I felt. This was a good move. This house was a good choice. This house was ours. The home of the future Jaegers. The home of the future Ackermans. Hell, the home of the future Jaeger-Ackermans.

I was ripped from my thoughts when Eren came back into the room with two medium sized pizzas in one arm and a roll of paper towel in the other. He grinned at me and walked to the bed and I immediately snatched the roll of paper towel from him once he was in reach. I pulled off a few pieces and sat the on the bed in front of me and nodded my head towards them.

“Pizza can go there for a little while, unless it is super greasy.” I mumbled quietly, pulling a few more pieces off the roll before setting the rest on the night table.

Eren set the pizza boxes down side by side before stepping back and removing his clothes. He followed the same routine I had and folded them before sticking them on the dresser. He stretched his arms above his head and yawned, and I kept my eyes on the pizza, knowing I could have easily gotten distracted. I pulled the first slice from the box and held it over a piece of paper towel as Eren climbed into the bed beside me. He leaned over and pressed a kiss to my temple before grabbing a slice for himself.

“Thank you for the pizza.” I said quietly, turning my head towards him, watching him take a bite of the overly cheesy pepperoni pizza. He smiled around a full mouth and stayed quiet as he chewed.

“Of course, my love.” he said quietly once his mouth was clear. And the words, as always, made my heart skip. “I haven’t seen you look so exhausted since the fire…” he said, trailing off a bit before taking another bite of his pizza.

I nodded slowly and took a small bite of my own piece.

The fire was still a delicate subject, considering the amount of things we lost. When we had gone back to the building a few days later with many of the other occupants, we learned that nothing was salvageable. The entire top floor had collapsed into our own, causing the ceiling to cave into the lower flower. It was more or less a domino effect of ceilings crashing down with fire rapidly spreading. Honestly, I was still amazed that no one was critically injured.

We continued to eat our pizza quietly, leaning on each other for support. It was clear that Eren was just as worn out as I was, though he was keeping up appearances more. But as he started to falter with eating his pizza, I knew it was time to sleep.

I quickly wiped my hands on the the paper towel sitting in front of me and leaned forward to close the pizza boxes. I lifted them and sat them on the nightstand beside the pizza and turned back to Eren, who was nodding off beside me. With a small smile on my face, I reached up to wipe the pizza remnants from his lips before balling up the towel and sitting them on the pizza boxes.

Part of me knew I needed to take the boxes downstairs to the fridge, and to brush my teeth. And part of me wanted to just curl up with Eren and fall asleep right then and there. Finally, I huffed and pushed the comforter back to slid out, though as I was about to leave the warm confines of the bed, I felt Eren’s hand wrap firmly around my wrist and pull me back against him. I looked up at him, and he was looking back at me through half lidded eyes and a smirk on his face.

“Don’t leave me.” he whined quietly, poking out his bottom lip.

I rolled my eyes and sat up a bit so I wasn’t straining my neck as much.

“I have to put the pizza in the fridge.”

Eren groaned but let his hand loosen on my wrist. “Fine, fine. Only because pizza for breakfast is almost as good as pizza for dinner.”

I squinted at the boy beside me before shaking my head. “Brat.”

I slid off the bed more successfully this time and picked up the pizza and towels before leaving the room. The house had gotten a lot darker than before, with the sun completely down now and all the lights off. I felt around the wall with my free hand until I found the light for the foyer before making my way down the stairs. I moved quickly as the temperature was a lot lower than it had been upstairs. I shivered slightly as I once again felt around the wall for the kitchen light once I had made it down the stairs. I quickly put the pizzas into the fridge and backtracked all of my steps to the front entrance. I poked my head into the living room to see Erwin sleeping soundly in his bed beside the fireplace and smiled. After making sure the front door was locked, I headed back up the stairs two at a time and turned off the last light before heading into the bedroom. Eren was still sitting in the same position where I had left him, though his eyes were open a bit wider. He grinned as I entered the room and reached for his phone, turning the flashlight feature on so I could shut off the lights. By the light of his phone, I padded my way across the room to the bed and crawled back up beside him. He immediately shut the light back off and set his phone to the side before sliding his arms around me. I fell against his side where I fit perfectly every night, wrapping my own arms around him.

I don’t remember falling asleep that night, but when I woke up the next morning, something felt off. I just couldn’t place it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This could go one of two ways (or both if I'm feeling creative enough). Would you rather this go to paranormal route, or the psychological thriller route. I have plans for both, I just need help being swayed either way ^_^
> 
> That being said, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Ratings will go up, more characters will be added but for the mean time, feedback to the above would be marvelous <33
> 
>  
> 
> [tumblr!](http://tscwrites.tumblr.com)


	2. Chapter 2

**Two Months Before**

The following weeks seemed to all blend together. The street had begun to fill up with more families, and the weird feeling I had on our first night started to dissipate. I wasn’t the biggest fan of people by any means, but I always felt comfort in knowing that we weren’t out in the middle of nowhere all on our own.

After the first week, Eren and I got back into our regular working routine. We’d unpacked all the boxes we needed and stored the rest in the attic, and our house was starting to feel like a home. During the week, I was usually left in bed alone while Eren rushed around to get to work at one of the bakeries in the city, which was run by one of his friend’s from high school. He was in charge of making bread and different sorts of cakes for the day, which called for him to be at the shop by five in the morning.

And let me tell you, the first little while that we lived together, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle waking up at four in the morning to see him leave.

But now it was one of my favourite things. And I always got to sleep for a couple hours after in his spot on the bed.

A month after we had settled in, it was a morning like any after. And after getting in a couple hours after Eren had left, I was sitting in the kitchen with a mug of coffee, a bowl of cereal and the newspaper in front of me. My eyes scanned the first page as I slowly chewed my corn flakes, and what was normal local, happy-go-lucky news on the front page had turned to a code-red emergency (which was really probably nothing for me to worry about.)

_Man Breaks Into Home, Missing Woman Returns, Two Men On The Run_

I frowned at the roller coaster of a headline and took a sip of coffee before continuing to read the article.

_Two men posing as brothers are on the run after their home had been initially broken into a week and a half ago. A man, who chooses to remain anonymous at this time, turned himself in to the cops after trying to break into a home in the suburbs of Sina._

_“I just wanted to grab a few things to pawn so I could pay off some debts. This house looked nice, so I decided that it would do. There were no cars in the driveway, and no lights were on. I thought I was in the clear, and I was more or less…” The man continues to explain how he broke in through a basement window. “In the basement were chains and ropes, and it looked like some BDSM lair, and I don’t really care what you are into, but it was kind of weird off the bat. I continue to go through the basement, and that’s when I hear someone crying. And I start to get nervous, because it’s not like sad crying. Well, completely sad crying. It’s pained, and it’s sad. And she was saying, ‘Please god help me,’ and ‘Someone please find me.’ and I knew something was wrong. I found the source of the crying and there was a door with a padlock on it…”_

I set the paper down and glanced at the clock, realizing I had fallen a bit behind schedule. I doubled my speed in eating and finished both the cereal and the coffee in record time. After throwing my dishes into the dishwasher, I hurried to the front of the house to throw on my jacket and grab my briefcase. The article on the front page was going to be the story all over work today, I knew it.

Getting to work took a little bit longer than it used to after moving out as far as we had. However, I was thankful that my shift started a bit later than most other people’s, so the traffic was a hell of a lot thinner than it could have been, and I still managed to get there within half an hour.

I walked into the station a few minutes before my shift was to start and headed straight to the back to put my jacket away and punch in. As soon as all was said and done, I headed back up to sit at my usual desk until it was time to go out on watch.

Unlike Sina, our town wasn’t crawling with criminals. It was a big community filled with goodie-two-shoes, and where everyone still knew everyone even though we were continuously growing outwards and upwards. We weren’t called to much more than noise complains, domestic disturbances, missing persons and car accidents. Basic, boring shit that is more of a pain in the ass than anything, but it’s a job and someone has to do it. Really only once or twice since I’ve started have there been murders, though the suspects had always been close by. It was still a dull job, to say the least.

“Did you see the news this morning?”

I looked up from the paperwork that had been stacked on my desk at some point that morning before I arrived and found the auburn-haired girl I’d come to call a friend on the force, staring back at me.

I shrugged. “I read part of the story while I was getting ready but I never got to finish it.”

Her eyes widened and she turned more towards me in her seat, gripping the back of the chair so tight her knuckles turned white. “It’s blowing up huge, Levi. I was watching it on the television this morning and it was on TVs in storefronts while I was walking to work.”

I furrowed my brow and shook my head. “Why? I mean, I know it’s unusual to have Sina news down here especially since it was nearly two weeks old but-“

“They think the two men are hiding here. Or are going to be hiding here. Last sightings of them they were due south in this direction a few days ago. No one has seen them any farther than here, and the last person to call in with information was about an hour north from here. They could really have gone east or west, but nothing has been heard either way. And since we are the next biggest town to Sina, it _would_ be a convenient place to hide for the time being…”

I took a deep breath and slowly nodded. “Have they got anyone on it yet?” I asked, looking around the station to see that no one was out of place. I turned back to the girl who had turned towards a door on the opposite side of the room.

“The chief is working on a special operations team since we don’t exactly have that sort of expertise. I am pretty sure there is gonna be a group from Sina coming down. Levi, the stories that they were telling on the news…” she sighed quietly as she turned back to face me, resting her chin on her hands which laid across the top of the back of the chair. “He’s been shut in his office since before I got here this morning. I really can’t even begin to guess what’s going to happen.”

My eyes moved to gaze at the closed door that was keeping the chief of police separated from the rest of the force, before back to the girl in front of me. “Petra, do you believe that any of this will concern us?”

She sucked in her bottom lip and dropped her eyes to the top of my desk. She stayed quiet for a moment while she mulled the question over before I saw her shoulders twitch in a shrug. “I really don’t know. But from the stories on the news, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit scared.”

I tilted my head slightly and tried to give my best comforting look. “It’s alright to be scared, but it’s going to be fine. I have a feeling it’s not even going to affect our town.”

The look in Petra’s eyes that told me she was still nervous hung around for a few more moments before finally disappearing. A smile crossed her face once more and she nodded. “You’re probably right. This whole thing is just getting blown out of proportion. You’re definitely right.” she said.

Though the way she said it, she was trying to talk herself into believing the words.

And at that, she turned back to the papers on her own desk and let me go back to work on my own things.

The rest of the day continued on as normal as it could. The chief finally came out of his office to let everyone know he was still working on a plan of action, and to go about our daily duties as per usual. I was satisfied with that, because I still firmly believed that nothing was going to happen. We lived in a boring ass town, with boring ass people and if it weren’t for Eren having his family here, I would have suggested moving much farther away. But I would never ask him to leave his family, because as much as we don’t get along (namely I don’t get along with Mikasa, his sister), they’re good people and they make him happy. Which is what family is supposed to do. And it’s not something I can really say happened for me.

But that was for another time.

Once we had been dismissed to do our things, I stood up from my desk and headed to the back to grab my jacket. It was time to go out on watch, which was never fun but it gave me a reason to get out of the station. Once I made it to the back parking lot, I found my cruiser and got into the front seat. I was working alone today, which was nice. I liked working alone. Of course, it was nice sometimes to have someone to talk to, when the mood to talk struck me, but more often than not I liked to sit and get the job done on my own.

It also gave me an excuse to stop by Sasha’s Bakery for some coffee and a side of Eren with no questions asked. Not that the force didn’t know about Eren and I, that is. They were very well aware, thanks to Petra. 

I managed to do a few rounds of the surrounding neighbourhoods before finally weaving my way through the roads to get to the shop where I finally parked out front. I stepped through the front doors and a bell chimed above my head in greeting.

“Officer Levi!” I glanced up to see the owner herself sliding a tray of cake slices into the display case in between us.

I walked forward towards the counter and gave her the friendliest smirk I could muster, ignoring the fact that she was covered in white dust which I knew would somehow find it’s way onto my black pants. “Hello, Sasha. And for the millionth time, stop calling me officer.”

“But that’s what you are!” she sang back, grinning widely at me before turning towards the black door behind her. She pushed it open and walked through, shouting, “Eren! Your husband is out here!”

After a clatter and a few profanities following, Eren emerged with just as much flour covering his apron as Sasha had. His face was a deep red in contrast to the white, and a real grin crossed my face at seeing him. Fuck, he was cute.

“I didn’t know we were already married.” I said, cocking my head to the side as a smirk played on my features. 

His face went an even deeper red, and I knew it was wise to stop before he fainted. We didn’t need to have another episode. “Shut up.” was all that he said.

He took a deep breath and turned around to the coffee machine, pouring two cups from the pot that was sitting half full in the machine. When he had filled them both, he walked back towards the counter and slid the to-go cup across to me.

“Thank you.” I mumbled quietly, lifting the steaming cup of coffee to my mouth, keeping my eyes on Eren, who was frowning. “What’s wrong?”

He slowly shook his head and took a sip from his own coffee cup before setting it down. “The story on the news today…” he said, trailing off and lifting his eyes to meet mine. “Are you on that case, or…”

I quirked my eyebrow and sighed, setting my own cup down. “No one is yet. The chief hasn’t figured out his plan of action yet, because it’s such a big deal.” I explained with a shrug, though the explanation only made Eren seem more nervous as he bit his bottom lip. “Hey, hey.” I raised my hand to cup his cheek across the counter, brushing my thumb against the soft skin. “It’s going to be okay, I promise. They might not be here.”

“But they tortured that girl, and I just am worried. What if they do it again? What if it’s Mikasa? What if it’s Sasha? What if it’s you?”

I cocked my head to the side. I knew the boy was concerned but, “Did you just, in a roundabout way, call me a girl?”

Eren snorted, covering his mouth with the hand that didn’t have a grip on his coffee mug. “Maybe.” he said, voice muffled from his fingers, which dropped a few seconds later. “You’d make a damn cute girl, let me tell you.”

I stood back, crossing my arms across my chest as I looked up at the boy across from me. “Don’t start getting any ideas. I know you have a pair of heels in the closet, don’t think I didn’t see them. I am not putting those on.”

Eren’s green eye’s doubled in size at my statement and both of his hands moved to cover his cheeks that had gone a deep shade of red once again.

“We live together, of course I saw them.” I said, chuckling quietly and reaching for my coffee to take another sip. 

However, his next words weren’t what I was expecting. “What if I ask you nicely?”

It was my turn for my eyes to widen and I stared at the boy incredulously. “I’m going back to work.” I stated before the conversation could further down a rather inappropriate route, picking up my cup of coffee. I caught Eren with a pout on his face before quickly hiding it, and I couldn’t help the quiet laugh that escaped my mouth. I leaned over the counter and brushed my lips against his before pulling back. “I’ll see you after work. I love you, Eren.”

“I love you, too. Be safe.”

I turned back towards him as I walked to the front door, smirk on my face. “Always.” I was always glad I could get his train of thought switched quickly. I didn’t like the thought of him mulling over criminals and my line of work and my safety. He was supposed to be happy in the contagious sort of way with that smile of his, not scared and nervous and stressed.

—————

The remainder of my shift continued on as it usually did with a few parking tickets, a speeding ticket and a couple calls for teenagers disrupting the peace. Yes, another day in paradise for this police officer.

At the end of my shift, I made my way back to the station. I had every intention of going straight for the back to grab my things, but to my misfortune, the chief had finally emerged from his office and caught me en route to the staff room.

“Levi! Come with me, let’s have a chat.” he said, wobbling slightly on his feet as he steered himself in the direction of his office. With a raised eyebrow, I obediently followed.

I walked into the room after him and watched as he slumped into his chair on the opposite side of his desk. He motioned for me to sit across from him and I slowly lowered myself down on the chair.

“So the case of the two missing men has been the story of the day down here in Trost, I am sure you are aware.” he started slowly, looking up at me from a paper on his desk. All I could see was his messy handwriting scrawled all across it; illegible from where I was sitting. I nodded. “And as you may know, we have no definite proof that they are in the area, but as a precaution I have put together a group that is strong, that has been with the force for a while and those officers that I can trust.” he explained as I sat back a bit more in the seat, crossing my leg over my knee. “I know it’s really hard to rank people, especially in this town being that not a whole lot happens. I’ve been here for thirty years, and nothing has really changed. But based on how you have handled some situations in the years you’ve been here, I’ve selected you to be on the special operations unit for this case, if it comes down to it. There is no pressure as of yet, but I just wanted to let you know-“

He cut himself off at my scowl. “I really don’t think we are going to need it. They’ve probably already passed through and no ones been assed to report anything…” I trailed off before tacking on a quick, “They’ve been missing for nearly two weeks!”

The chief straightened himself up and stared right back at me. Very few people really attempted to look me in the eye, but he was challenging me. “You’re on the special operations team, Levi. That’s really the end of the discussion.”

I quirked an eyebrow at the finality of the subject and shook my head. I sat forward and moved to stand up as an idea sparked in my head. With a smirk crossing my face, my eyes met his.

“Alright, here’s a deal.” I started, pressing the pads of my fingers together in front of me as I rested my elbows on the armrests of the chair. “If you’re right, or rather if everyone is right and they are here, I will obviously do my job. If I am right and this shit is being blown out of proportion, I want two weeks off - paid - for my wedding and honeymoon. On top of the week I’ve already booked off for it. Eren deserves more than a week vacation. Fuck, if this shit is actually happening, I think the whole team deserves that, honestly.”

It was the man in front of me’s turn to glare, but I could see him weighing the options. It felt like forever until he finally spoke again. “Fine. Deal. We’ll give it a few months and if nothing has happened, then you can have three weeks off.” At that, I was cheering on the inside, but keeping my face as emotionless as ever on the outside. “Anyways, you’re on a team with Petra, Auruo, Erd and Gunther. That’s your main core, everyone else of course is on back up. Everyone is on 24-hour on-call. Keep your phone on, or so help me god…” he muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “You can go.”

“Thank you, sir.” I mumbled back, pushing myself off of the seat and exiting the office.

In that moment, all I wanted to do was be home. The sun had set since I had been inside, and I hated driving at night, though the road was clear with zero traffic ahead of me.

I arrived home a short while later, wanting nothing more than to collapse on the couch with a glass of wine in one hand, and Eren’s hand in my other. What I wasn’t expecting when I walked through the door, however, was a pair of gentlemen sitting on said couch talking to Eren, who was seated in an armchair that he had received from his mother once we had moved in. After kicking off my work boots and toeing them neatly to the side, I pulled off my jacket and hung it on the coat rack that hung beside the door and made my way into the living room.

“Levi! Welcome home!” Eren jumped off of the armchair that he had been sitting in with a wide grin. He stepped over, pressing a quick kiss to my cheek while grasping my hand tightly with his. “The new neighbours just wanted to come by and introduce themselves, and we got to talking and time just flew by. I didn’t realize the time.”

I looked at the two men sitting close together on the couch, fingers twined together and resting between them. They broke apart a few seconds later however and stood up, reaching forward to shake my hand.

The first man had a long face with a stupid hair cut, but I gave him my friendliest look as I shook his hand tightly. “As he’s already mentioned, I’m Levi. It’s nice to meet you.”

The man with the terrible hair grinned at me and stood back after the handshake was over. “I’m Jean, it’s a pleasure. And this is my boyfriend, Marco.”

He wrapped his arm around the man standing next to him’s waist. His hair was not terrible in contrast. In fact, it sort of resembled a much shorter variation mine. And my god, his face was freckly and his smile was almost as contagious as Eren’s.

“It’s definitely nice to meet you. We’ve heard a lot about you in the past couple hours from Eren.” Marco said with a grin. I arched my brow and turned to Eren, who’s cheeks had flushed a light pink.

“Is that so? All terrible things, I’m sure.” I drawled, squeezing Eren’s hand a bit before turning back to the two men standing in front of us.

“I would never say anything bad about you, Levi!” he exclaimed, which put a small smirk on my face.

“We should be going, anyway. But don’t forget about the party in a couple weeks once we get settled in. We’d love to see you there!” Jean said, looking right at Eren in a way that made me want to jump between the two of them.

But I refrained.

We saw the pair of men out of the house a few minutes later and upon locking the door, I turned on Eren.

“Party?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.

He nodded as he looked out the window on the front door before hitting the light switch to turn off the porch lights.

“Yeah, they want to hold a house warming party sort of thing. But of course, since we’re all new to the neighbourhood, it’s more of a neighbourhood-warming party. I said I’d make some cakes, and they sounded really excited about it. Hell, I’m really excited about it.” And he did sound excited. Eren loved getting to make cakes and other baked goods for people outside of work. And hell, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy indulging on the sweets myself. He baked like a pro.

I smiled at him as I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Well, they seemed like nice guys. Although that one guy really needs to fix his hair.” I muttered, resting my head on his shoulder.

“He kind of looks like a horse.”

I nodded as he broke into a fit of laughter at his own comment, which was contagious enough for get a laugh out of myself. 

“He really does.”

“I should make the cake out of hay.”

“We are terrible neighbours, they’re gonna move in no time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I'm gonna stick this here for now but in the chapters after this (may not be the following one, but after that definitely) there is gonna be some major trigger warnings (if you can think of a trigger, it's probably going to be included I'm sorry) so I am putting this here now so you can decide if you would like to continue. ^_^ I will be upping the rating of course when the time for all that comes, obviously!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed, anyway. I had a lot of trouble with this chapter and I feel like it jumped a lot so I hope it was easy to follow.
> 
> [tumblr!](http://tscwrites.tumblr.com)


	3. Chapter 3

**One Month Before**

“Marco came by this afternoon while you were at work to let me know that the party is going to be in two weeks!”

I looked up from my paperwork to see Eren flitting around the kitchen preparing dinner. I gave him a small smile before lowering my eyes back to the papers in front of me.

“That sounds like something we could both really use.” I said quietly as my eyes scanned over the printed words, though nothing was exactly registering.

“My mind is reeling with ideas on what to bake. I think I should make a proper cake. Two layer, long party cake. Maybe I can do chocolate. Or one chocolate layer and one vanilla! I hope no one is allergic to anything. I could do a coconut cake. Maybe Nutella icing, that is always a big hit…”

My eyes moved back up to the boy moving about the kitchen, mixing sauce in a pot on the stove while he continued to ramble. I leaned forward and rested my chin in my hand, forgetting about the paperwork for the time being. As hyped up as he was, watching Eren was always calming and with the work I had in front of me, it was something I needed.

The story of the missing men had died down to a dull roar after the whole thing had blown up. It had been a month since the story was released, but there had been no news or evidence of their whereabouts in the area. That wasn’t to say that we weren’t still on the look out, of course, but things were back to normal with basic parking tickets, domestic disputes, and underaged drinking. Although a few days ago, we’d been called out to a house and made an arrest for drug possession, so that was something new.

Ah, the exciting life of a Trost police officer.

I sighed quietly and sat back in the chair I’d been sitting on and stretched my legs under the table as Eren came over and set down a shaker full of parmesan cheese.

“You should do the coconut cupcakes again like you did for Armin’s birthday. Those are always good.” I finally said, looking up at him before he turned back to tend to his pasta sauce. Just from the side of his face I could see the wide grin set on his lips.

“Just because they’re your favourite, maybe I will. Yeah, I think I will.” He turned slightly back to me before adding a quick, “thank you, Levi.”

And I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my own face. “You’re welcome.”

A comfortable silence took over the kitchen as I moved all of my papers to the chair beside mine, and just in time too as Eren replaced them with a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs.

I would like to make one thing clear — I was definitely in no way not marrying the boy just because he was a great cook. Nope. That idea never crossed my mind.

“This looks delicious, love.” I mumbled quietly, reaching for the parmesan cheese as he sat down next to me.

The grin was still on his face as he stole the cheese out of my hand. I quirked my eyebrow at him as a smirk found its way onto my lips.

“Thank you.” he muttered back, leaning over the corner of the table to press a chaste kiss to my cheek.

—————

**Two Weeks Before**

The following couple weeks continued on just the same. Wake up at four in the morning to see Eren off. Sleep for a couple more hours before going to work. Fill out paperwork, then go on watch. Give people tickets, split up disputes and drink delicious coffee from an amazing bakery. The usual.

And by the time the night of the party arrived, I really was looking forward to a night to be free. With the missing men being just that - still missing - the special operations team was laying extremely low. Meaning, I didn’t have to be on call because one night wasn’t going to make a difference.

I rolled into the driveway that evening after my shift ended and already saw people milling about Jean and Marco’s place across the street. The summer was here, and the sun was shining. With everyone smiling across the street and with the weather as perfect as it was, I knew tonight was going to be good.

I walked into the house after locking the car and found Eren in the kitchen hunched over a tray of cupcakes. He had an icing gun in one hand and a pouch of coconut flakes sitting by his other. I stayed quiet as I slipped back out of the kitchen to head upstairs to change. I would say hello to Eren after, as I never liked to disrupt his work. He never seems to mind when I do, but he works faster if I am not in the room.

I shuffled around the bedroom and slipped out of my uniform, quickly replacing it with a pair of black shorts and a red button up t-shirt. I folded my uniform before setting it in the hamper beside one of the dressers. After moving over to the mirror, I combed my fingers through my hair to get it back to sitting how it normally did. Deciding that I was presentable enough, I made my way back downstairs to see that Eren had started cleaning his work station. I moved quietly until I was standing right behind him at the sink before slinking my arms around his waist, causing him to jump.

“Holy shit, don’t do that.” he gasped, moving a hand to his chest as he bent forward over the sink slightly. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Sorry, sorry.” I mumbled, leaning to press a kiss to the nape of his neck before pulling back. I moved over to see the cupcakes in all their delicious looking glory. “They look very good.” I stated, glancing over to Eren who was blindly reaching for the tools he had been using.

“White chocolate coconut cupcakes with a basic buttercream icing topped with coconut.” he explained, pulling apart the icing gun he had been using. “If I had more time, I’d have done a cake and iced it properly, but also I think this will be easier for this kind of party.”

I nodded slowly and moved around the edge of the counter to sit on one of the stools. “Speaking of the party, there is a lot of people already over there. And it’s gonna be warm for a while, it feels like.”

I could see a small smile on Eren’s face at that. “I’m looking forward to it. Not only is it a block-warming party, it’s a summer party. I love summer parties.”

The look on his face told me he was genuinely excited for tonight, and I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face at the sight.

“I’ll finish the dishes, you go get ready and we can head over.” I finally said, eying the few things that were still on the counter. Eren was generally really good about cleaning, but he was slow and I was about to leave icing to dry on the counter top.

And much to my relief, he dropped the soapy sponge back in the water in the sink and nodded. “Thank you, thank you.” he mumbled, shaking off his hands before drying them with the tea towel that hung over the fake-drawer handle in front of the sink. He leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to my lips as he passed me to leave the kitchen, though my actions were quicker as I held out my arm to stop him from going away. My free arm moved up to catch his head, pulling him back down to my height to kiss him again. I could feel his lips form a smile against my own before deepening. I controlled myself however, and after a quick trip around his mouth with my tongue, I broke the kiss and gave him a smirk.

“How much icing did you eat?” I asked, cocking my head to the side. There was a load of sweetness in that mouth of his, as there usually was when he baked at home.

Eren’s cheeks flushed pink right away as he wiggled out of my grasp. “Well, I mean…” he bit the inside of his bottom lip as he tried to think of an excuse. “I had to make sure it tasted good, you know.”

I raised an eyebrow and nodded at the comment before letting out a quiet chuckle. “Of course. Now, go get ready and I’ll clean. Go.”

With a quick nod, Eren left the room and left me to clean the rest of his things. I finished cleaning off the icing gun and set them on the drying rack, followed by a couple spatulas, a wooden spoon, measuring cups and spoons and the bowl that the icing was mixed in. I drained the water once there were no dishes left, and began wiping down the counter with a wet cloth. Eren joined me as I rinsed the cloth off, looking much less covered in flour. His hair was a mess, as usual, but he looked very well dressed in his black jeans and a green shirt that had a very faded Sex Pistols logo across the front.

“We look like Christmas.” he said after a minute, frowning. “Maybe I should—“

“Eren, you look great. You don’t need to change.” I said, rolling my eyes. “At least if I lose you and need to find you, I can just ask people if they’ve seen the other half of December 25th.”

Eren sighed and shook his head before stepping over to open the fridge. He pulled out a case of beer he’d bought on the way home before nodding towards the cupcakes once the fridge was once again shut.

“Alright, Kris Kringle,” he started, causing me to flip him off automatically. “Grab your Christmas spirit and those cupcakes and lets head over to find a mistletoe, eat figgy pudding, and deck some halls.” The fact that he had said that with a straight face almost impressed me. “I peeked out the window upstairs and there is a lot more people living on this street than I thought there would be.”

I picked up the two trays of cupcakes and carefully walked through the house behind Eren. He opened the door and I stepped out in front of him and carefully descended the stairs to the front path.

“Levi! Let me help you with that!” I heard the voice, followed by running footsteps. A few seconds later, a freckled face stood in front of me, smiling wide. “Here, I’ll take one of these off your hands.”

“Thanks, Marco.” I said, gladly handing over one of the trays.

I stood at the bottom of the steps until Eren joined the both of us before following Marco across the street to their front yard. They had a few tables set up with food. There were bowls of salad, some cheese and cracker plates, veggie trays, and a few different types of desserts. Marco set the tray of cupcakes down beside a bowl of whipped cream, and I set mine down as well.

“Those look amazing, Eren!” Marco finally said, turning towards my fiancé who was standing beside me, beaming.

“Thanks! I hope no one is deathly allergic to coconut. There is a lot of it in there.” He said, setting the case of beer down under the table before opening the end. He picked out two cans and handed me one.

Marco was still smiling and he shook his head. “No worries, my friend. There is a lot of other things to choose from if they are.”

“You made it! Thanks for coming over, guys.” said another voice. I turned my head slightly to see Jean coming over to join us.

“We couldn’t exactly miss it.” I said with a quiet chuckle, nodding towards our house. “You’d see us, probably.”

Jean turned his head towards our house momentarily before back to us and nodded. “You’re probably right. But thanks for showing up. Everyone seems really chill, so go mingle and meet your new neighbours!”

And with that, the man that resembled a horse and his boyfriend left us to our own devices.

“We should have brought over our lawn chairs.” Eren mumbled quietly, looking to the group circled on another part of the lawn, laughing at one joke or another. Eren was correct, I wasn’t down for standing up all night.

“Hold my drink, I’ll go quickly grab them from the garage.” I said, holding out my can of beer. I leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek and jogged across the road.

I pulled out my keys from my back pocket and unlocked my car, reaching in to hit the button in the visor to open the garage door. The garage was still full of boxes that we had to sort through, though near the stairs to go into the house sat two folded up green canvas lawn chairs. I tugged both of them out of the drawstring bags they had been living in and left the garage, closing the door and locking my car once more. I carried the two chairs across the road and found Eren talking with a short boy with a buzz cut.

“Speak of the devil, this is him.” Eren said as soon as he had spotted me. I cocked my head to the side at his words and opened both of the chairs up along side everyone else’s.

“Telling everyone how much of a bad person I am again, are you?” I asked, smirk growing on my face.

Eren rolled his eyes and sat down promptly in one of the chairs, the boy he’d been talking to took the one beside his that it seemed he had been sitting in before. I collapsed into the second chair I had set up and Eren immediately handed my drink back over, which I took a sip from right away.

“Of course not. I was telling Connie — oh! Connie, this is Levi, Levi this is Connie.” he said quickly, and I reached across Eren’s front to shake the boy’s - Connie’s - hand. “I was just saying that you are a cop in Trost when you walked up.”

I nodded slowly, more glad to listen to the conversations around me than to be apart of them. I love parties, don’t get me wrong, but I am terrible with small talk.

“What is it that you do, Eren?” Connie asked, leaning against the arm of his lawn chair.

I could see Eren’s eye’s widen at the question. “I work at Sasha’s Bakery in town!”

“Sasha’s Bakery…” Connie repeated before his eyes widened as well and a large grin took over his face. “Sasha as in Sasha Braus?” Eren nodded. “No fuckin’ way, I haven’t seen her in years. She said she wanted to open a bakery, I didn’t know she actually had.”

“Yeah, she opened it a couple years ago and I’ve been working there since day one!”

“Shit, I’m going to have to stop by. We went to middle school together and she had a real passion for food. Pastries especially. We ran into each other right after we both graduated high school and she was still dead set on having that bakery of hers, and she was telling me she was going to college to get her degree in business…? I think that is what it was.”

Eren nodded again. “Yeah! We went to high school together but we didn’t talk very much and then we bumped into each other on the college campus one day. I was in the chef’s course, and she was taking business and I had just made a shit ton of cookies and gave her some and, boom, friendship made.”

“Damn, it really is a small world, isn’t it.” Connie added right after, resting his chin on his hand.

I stayed quiet as the two continued their chat. I took the time to take in the surrounding people talking with one another. There was a tiny blonde girl sitting in the lap of a tall, freckled brunette who had her arms wrapped tightly around the smaller girl. They were talking to three other people, another small blonde girl (though not as small), a beefed up blond boy alongside, what I could only assume, a friendly giant who looked really nervous.

And seeing nervous people never sits well with me, you know, being a police officer and all. However, upon further inspection, I watched as the blond boy took note of the nerves that his friend was showing and with a a quick movement of his arm wrapping around his waist, the friendly giant seemed to relax.

My eyes continued to scan around the people in the yard. Jean and Marco were in a deep discussion with a couple that — wait a minute.

Without any hesitation, I stood up and stalked across the yard to the couple that Jean and Marco were speaking to. And by couple, they were definitely not a couple. And the fact that they hadn’t told me they were moving…

“Levi?” the small redhead’s voice squeaked when she turned around. First shock, and then a giant smile took over her entire face. “Levi!” she said it louder this time, running the last few paces and jumping onto me. I wrapped my arms around her waist and kept our balance as to not knock us both over.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I mumbled against the side of her head before she pulled back, the same smile still on her face.

“We just moved down the road the other day. Marco came by when he saw the moving truck and told us about the party and that we should come.” She pulled back all the way and reached over to tug on the man she had been standing with’s shirt.

I looked up and grinned at the man, who looked quite shocked to see me, as I did with both of them.

“Holy shit, look who the cat dragged in.” he said, moving to wrap his arms around me in a quick hug. “Damn, I did not expect to see you here.”

“Well, Farlan, I could say the same for you and Isabel.” I stated with a shrug. I glanced up to see Jean and Marco’s incredibly confused faces. “These two used to live in the apartment beside us before it burnt down. We were really close and I haven’t seen them since the day we all went back in to see what we could salvage.”

“What the hell? Isabel? Farlan? What?” I turned around to see Eren standing behind me, his eyes as wide as dinner plates at the sight of the two in front of me.

The majority of the night was spent catching up with the two that we had grown close to previously. It was nice to have familiar faces in the neighbourhood, even though we were slowly meeting everyone else as well. Jean and Marco continued to entertain us, and we found ourselves circled around in a game of charades. We played as teams, and Eren and I were terrible as to be expected. Party games were never our thing, especially after a few beers. We learned that the small blonde girl and the tall freckled girl were our neighbours named Krista and Ymir. They went to the same high school as Connie, who is living in their basement suite. Beside them was Annie, Reiner and the giant Bertholdt, who despite his sweaty, tall exterior, was incredibly kind. I found out that Farlan and Isabel were beside their house at the end of the cul-de-sac. There were a few houses that were still not filled with people, but the turn out for the party was perfect. Not too big, not too small. Just right. Goldilocks would be proud.

We learned the Jean was a musician and Marco was an artist. They told the group that they were working on a studio in the basement. Half for art, and half for music. Jean made sure to let everyone know that the music wasn’t going to be loud, as they had decided to build the walls of that particular room to be soundproof. Eren was excited to hear the music that Jean played, I was excited to know I didn’t have to hear the music in my own house from theirs.

As the sun started to set and the air started to cool, that is when people started to retire back to their own houses. There was next to no food left, all the cupcakes had been devoured (much to Eren’s delight) and I found myself packing up the chairs with a bit of a wobble in my step. It had been a while since I’d really had much to drink, and I was sure that I over did it just a little bit.

I felt an arm wrap around my waist as I stood up and looked over to see Eren beside me.

“L-Let me help you with those.” he mumbled with slurred words, reaching for a chair.

Together we hobbled back across the street, and I opened the garage door once more with the button inside my car before locking it once more. We walked into the garage and threw the chairs by the stairs up to the house and decided that we could put them away properly in the morning. We made our way up the stairs and into the house, not before Eren slammed the button to close the garage door. We stumbled into the kitchen from the stairs and I immediately found my arms wrapping around Eren’s neck. But his were wrapped around my waist just as quick.

And our lips were connecting, and I didn’t realize I needed the contact that badly until that moment. We continued to stumble through the house, bumping into counters and door frames, continuing the messy kiss until we got to the stairs. We were both laughing, and god I could listen to Eren laugh all day and never get tired of it. I kicked off my shoes haphazardly, as did he, before crawling up the stairs quickly as if we were in a race. After what seemed like forever, we finally burst through our bedroom door, startling Erwin from his sleep in his bed beside the night table.

I slowly attempted to walk towards the bed, but Eren caught me around the waist once more and I felt his lips against my neck. I let out a gasp at the contact, and I was pleased to see the small dog get off of his bed and hobble out of the room.

“You turn into a horny teenager when you’re drunk.” I mumbled, turning around in his arms as I finally made it to the foot of the bed.

He smirked at me, his eyes were glossed over from the alcohol and it was all I could smell on him. Though, I had no room to talk myself.

“Can you handle it, old man?” he slurred back at me, letting his lips connect with my neck again. I wrapped my arms around his neck and dug my nails into his back when I felt his teeth against my skin.

“Brat, what do you think?”

The rest of the night was a hazy mess of sweaty limbs bending, heavy panting, and one headboard putting dents into the wall. And when I woke up to my phone going off, with a sore head and a sore ass a few hours later, I deeply regretted the alcoholic decisions I had made.

I _would_ get called in on my day off, hungover as fuck.

—————

**00:00**

I hated working late. I almost hated working late as much as I hated working with a hangover. Two weeks later and I still don’t feel like I’ve properly recovered from that. But this day in particular, I really hated working late, and when I finally clocked out at nine, I was eager to get home and get into bed with my fiancé. Sure, nine isn’t late by any means, but when I am usually off at five, it is late.

I drove up onto the driveway alongside Eren’s car and got out. I stretched my arms above my head and yawned before making my way into the house. The front door was locked, which was strange. Though I pushed that to the side and figured Eren was in bed. I walked through the house after kicking off my boots and made my way into the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea. While I waited for the water to boil, I spotted Erwin laying by his food dish, whining quietly. With a frown, I bent down to inspect the bowl, and realized that nothing had been put in there since I left this morning.

Panic was starting to rise, but I kept my cool. Maybe Eren had passed out as soon as he had gotten home. He’s asleep upstairs.

I quickly ran over to the cupboard where Erwin’s food lived and filled his bowl. He jumped up immediately and began scarfing the food down as the kettle automatically shut off. I moved to pour the boiling water into the cup to let it steep before finally making my way upstairs to check on Eren.

What I wasn’t expecting to see was an empty bed, but that is what I found.

Panic was starting to take over. Where else could he be?

I frowned, and started to move about the house. He wasn’t in the bathroom, the bedroom or the guest bedroom. He wasn’t in the office, the living room, the laundry room or the garage. I stopped as I stood in the middle of the kitchen once more and listened. There was no sound, other than Erwin chewing his food. Not a creak of a floorboard, nor no a drip of a tap.

I bit my lip gently as I patted my pockets for my phone, opening it up to call him

_Ring… ring… ring…_

_You have reached Eren Jaeger! I can’t get to the phone right now, but leave a message!_

I frowned at my phone as I hung up, only to redial. No answer. No answer on the third try, either.

I was getting worried, and I was starting to shake. Where could he be? He wasn’t taking the dog for a walk, and he was no where in the house…

I ran to the front door and threw on a pair of slip on shoes. They clashed horribly with my uniform, but I didn’t care. I left the house and ran down the steps, not bothering to lock the door as I was only going across the street. I stepped up to Jean and Marco’s house and knocked on the door, loudly.

It didn’t take long before Jean answered the door, concern written all over his face. I guess I looked worse than I thought.

“Levi? What’s wrong?” he asked, genuine concern in his voice.

“Is Eren here? By any chance?” I asked, frowning slightly. It sounded stupid, that I felt so worked up over this. I couldn’t help it, he was always home when I got home. Always. And if he wasn’t going to be, he’d tell me.

Jean slowly shook his head, the concern on his face building. “No, I haven’t seen him.”

I nodded slowly and all the worst possible things were coming to life in my head. He was missing. He was gone. He left. He wasn’t coming back.

After thanking Jean and apologizing for going by so late, I retreated back to the house. Immediately, I was on the phone with Mikasa and Armin, neither of them had heard from him for the last few days which was normal for him. Next I called Isabel and Farlan, and they hadn’t heard from him either.

I was starting to feel sick. Where was he?

I hated to be the asshole to knock on people’s doors but I needed to know where Eren was.

After knocking on Krista and Ymir’s door, I learned that neither of them had seen Eren. Connie came up to assure that he hadn’t seen him either. Moving down the street, Annie, Bertholdt and Reiner hadn’t seen him either. But the concern on everyone’s faces made me realize, at least I had a strong group to help me look.

I retreated back to the house with a heavy heart. I didn’t know where he was, I had no way of getting ahold of him. He wasn’t answering his phone in the way of calling or texting. I was scared. I was shaking. I was nauseous.

I stepped back into our house and felt my eyes starting to prick as tears threatened to fall. He’ll be here in the morning. He will be beside me when I wake up in the morning.

This is a bad dream, and I just need to wake up.

But I didn’t go to the bedroom, nor did I retrieve my forgotten tea from the kitchen. I walked into the living room and sat down, and stared out the front bay window. And I continued to phone his cell phone. And by the tenth call, the phone had been shut off. Straight to voicemail. I was going to be sick.

Eren, where fuck did you go?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any glaring mistakes, I'll check it over when I get more of a chance! (I am about to run out the door but I wanted to get this up.) The next chapter _may_ be the start of all the triggers, so this is your warning ^_^ 
> 
> All the kudos and comments have been much appreciated! I really like hearing what you think~
> 
> [tumblr!](http://tscwrites.tumblr.com)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  *****Triggers start in this chapter***** (though this chapter in particular is still mild)
> 
> If you do not deal well with abuse of any kind, turn around now! Tags have been added, and will continue to be added as they're written.

**Day Two**

Two days. Two fucking days and I have not seen or heard from Eren. I’ve been patrolling the streets on my own time, and the force has been backing me up 100% since I called in at four in the morning the morning he never came home. I was panicking. I was panicking so hard that I knew I wasn’t thinking clearly.

I just wanted my fiancé back.

“When was the last time you saw him?”

It was a question I had been asked multiple times in the last 48 hours and I was sick of repeating myself. But for that millionth time, I looked the chief dead in the eye and answered, “Four-thirty in the morning two days ago when he was about to leave for work.”

He scrawled my words down on a piece of paper in front of him as I sat and watched, fingers clawing at the fabric on my thighs as a way to calm myself down.

“Where does he work?”

I rolled my eyes, as the questions were just getting ridiculous. The entire force knew Eren, and knew what he did for a living, and I knew they needed the answers straight from me but it was getting tiring.

“Baker at Sasha’s Bakery a few blocks away.” I muttered as my leg started to bounce up and down. It was taking everything in me to remain calm, and my fidgeting was even starting to annoy me.

The chief nodded as he continued to write down notes.

“When does he usually get home?”

I slowly shook my head, as I was rarely home when he did get back. “Maybe around three? Give or take a while. I’m usually working.” I paused as I really tried to think. “If I am not working and he does have to work, it’s usually closer to two. It has been later, sometimes.”

The man on the other side of the desk continued to nod as he continued to write.

“And his car was in the driveway?”

“Yes. As were a few bags of groceries and a bottle of wine in the back seat that never went in.”

“There were no signs of him going in the house?”

I paused for a moment, straining my memory of when I arrived home two days prior. I shook my head. “Everything was locked up, lights were off and Erwin, our dog, hadn’t been fed.”

The chief hummed as he continued to write down what I was saying with his chicken scratch.

“We’ll go around the neighbourhood again to ask your neighbours. I know you’ve already done it, but we will go as well.” He paused for a moment before lifting his head up, looking right at me. “I know this is hard, Levi. We’ll find him.”

That was it. That was the breaking point. Hearing the chief’s kind words, as opposed to his usual harsh voice, that was it for me. And I could feel my eyes beginning to burn with the start of tears wanting to flow. I was scared. I didn’t want to know what had happened to him. I wanted him home, and safe. I wanted to wake up from this nightmare.

And the tears slowly started to fall down my cheeks, and the chief looked back down to his desk before lifting his hand up to the intercom that sat in the right corner.

“Petra, can you come in here for a moment, please.”

I sat and stared blankly at the front of the desk, letting the tears freely fall down my face. I had completely missed the door opening and closing behind me, and the only thing to shake my from my trance was pair of hands lightly resting on my shoulders.

“Levi, come on.” a quiet voice whispered in my ear. I nodded slowly and stood up, and immediately found Petra’s arms around my waist. “Let’s go get some coffee, okay?”

And although the invitation only made me want to go to Sasha’s Bakery and get coffee from Eren, I still forced myself to nod and let the girl pull me out of the office.

——————

**Two Days Before**  
 _Eren_

Quinoa, _check_  
Cinnamon, _check_  
Sweet potatoes, _check_  
Onion, _check_  
Gala apples, _check_  
Granny Smith apples, _check_

I looked over the ingredients once. I looked over the ingredients twice. I would have checked over a third time, if it wasn’t my turn to check out.

On nights that Levi worked late, I enjoyed cooking a full meal for him to come home to. Generally I cooked dinner every night as it was, but on nights that he worked late, I always tried for something nicer than a pot of spaghetti, or a steak. It also gave me an excuse to experiment with new recipes, with giving me enough time to throw something together if the experiment was to backfire.

After paying for the groceries, I headed out to the parking lot to pack the bags into the back of my car. I had managed to get off work right on time, and I had all afternoon to try and put together a nice dinner. I decided to make a pit stop at the liquor store to pick up a bottle of Levi’s favourite wine, before continuing on my way home.

I pulled into the driveway a little after three and noticed Marco and Jean out in the front yard, fiddling with a ladder. As I stepped out of the car, Marco waved while Jean cursed at the ladder loud enough for me to hear. I chuckled softly and made my way across the street. The groceries would be okay for the time being.

“Need a hand?” I asked, eyeing Jean who was trying to unlock the hinge half way down the ladder.

He sighed quietly and let it drop to the ground. “I’m trying to make it compact again, but the lock seems to be stuck.” he said, sounding quite defeated.

“This is what we get for deciding to clean the windows.” Marco added with a laugh, crossing his arms across his front.

I leaned over to examine the ladder. I was definitely not the outdoorsy type, but even with a quick glance you could see the spring was out of place. I squatted down and jiggled it, forcing a laugh out of Jean.

“That’s what I’ve been doing the last ten minutes.” he muttered, and I glanced up at him just in time to see him pinch the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

I looked back down to the ladder and sighed before standing back up, crossing my arms across my chest, almost mimicking Marco.

“You need a hammer, or something. The spring is so close to being aligned, you just need something with enough force to push it.” I stated, keeping my eyes trained on the ladder as if I could move it with my mind.

“We might have one in the back shed, I’ll go look.” Jean finally said, running back around the side of the house to the backyard.

“I told him we should have just hired someone to do it, but no no. Mr. Handy-Man needs to do it himself.” Marco mumbled, rolling his eyes. A smirk found it’s way onto my face at the sarcastic comment. “He always needs to be doing _something_ , there is no such thing as stopping with him.”

“He seems the type. If he’s not doing anything, he’s super fidgety.”

“Exactly! I’m glad I’m not the only one that knows the type.”

I raised my eyebrow at him and cocked my head to the side. “I am sorry to say, Marco, but I am exactly the same way.”

And a moment later, Jean was waltzing right back around to the front of the house with a hammer in his hand. Once he was standing in front of the forsaken ladder, he crouched down and began lightly tapping the spring back into place. And just like I had figured, the spring locked back into it’s proper position and folding the ladder back in half was a breeze.

“Well, thank you Eren. We’d probably still be struggling if you didn’t come over to help.” Marco said as the three of us made our way to the shed with the ladder in our hands.

“It’s really no problem. What are neighbours for, right?”

“You want to come in for a beer? Or are you busy?” Jean piped up a moment later once the ladder was in place against the wall of the shed.

“I actually have some groceries to put away, and I have dinner to make…” I trailed off, pointing behind me with my thumb.

“Just one beer. As a thank you.” he pressed, and I nodded.

“One beer, but then I have to get home to make dinner.”

I followed Jean and Marco into the house from the back door which led right into the kitchen area. The set up was similar to ours, with a decent sized kitchen next to a sitting area. It was the first time I’d been in their house since they had moved in, and I’d been interested in seeing what they had done with the place with all the extra renovations they did after the initial move in.

And as if Marco had been able to read my thoughts, he spoke up. “It’s so nice being able to have company now without there being tools and drywall all over the place. This place was a disaster for weeks after we moved in.”

I laughed softly and took the beer Jean had poured me from a large bottle. Marco stuck with a bottle of water.

“To great neighbours.” I said, feeling a tad stupid for doing so as soon as I had done it, but raised my glass regardless.

And just as I had hoped, the two of them joined in with the ridiculous words and I took a sip from the glass, pleased with the taste that hit my tongue.

“What beer is this? I’ve never seen that bottle.” I asked, glancing at the dark bottle that now sat near the sink on the kitchen counter. It didn’t appear to have a label, or at least one facing my direction.

Jean turned back around to take a quick glance at the bottle before turning back to me, leaning forward on the counter, resting on his arms. “It’s a home brew. It’s a few of the last bottles we have before the move. We haven’t set up our new brewing system yet.”

“You brew your own beer?” I asked, eyes widening. “Honestly, is there anything you don’t do?”

Marco and Jean looked at each other with the question and laughed quietly together. Marco shrugged and Jean looked back to me.

“Like I said, Jean likes to keep busy. With working, and music and trying to be the terrible household handy-man-“

“Hey!”

“-all the while brewing beer, and wine, and trying to test his hand at writing books…” he trailed off before turning his head to Jean with raised eyebrows. The two-toned haired man rolled his eyes. “My point exactly.”

“Wait, I thought the music was your work?” I tilted my head to the side with genuine curiosity, bringing the beer to my lips for another swig.

Jean shrugged and shook his head. “Man, if I could get into the music business, things would be a whole hell of a lot different…” he trailed off, sipping his own beer. “I am a certified therapist, though with moving and renovations, I haven’t gotten a chance to find anywhere to go. Part of me is thinking of setting up shop in the office—“

“Jean, please…”

Jean glanced at Marco upon hearing his name and smirked. “But someone doesn’t think that’s wise.”

“Why not?” I asked, turning my attention to Marco, who had hopped up onto the counter across from where Jean and I were, swinging his legs side to side.

“I would feel uncomfortable having strangers waltzing through our house, is all. Especially in the field that Jean specializes in. He would be much better in a psychiatric ward. I mean, don’t get me wrong or anything…” he trailed off as a slight pink colour crept onto his cheeks. “Just some mentally unstable people are, well, unstable. I wouldn’t want them losing their cool in our house when they could be in a proper office with help around them.”

I slowly nodded and it did make sense. I would be in the same boat.

The conversation continued as just mundane small talk as I continued to down the glass of beer. And when I was done, I sat the glass down and wiped my lips with the back of my hand.

“Well, thanks you two. I thoroughly enjoyed that and next time you make some I will actually buy a few bottles off of you.” I said, looking between the two with a wide grin. “I really do need to get home though.” I pulled my phone from my pocket to check the time. I’d been there an hour longer than I had planned. I would still have enough time to make dinner, at least.

“It was nice to have you over, Eren.” Marco said, matching my smile as he hopped back off of the counter.

Jean stood up straight and I could feel his eyes boring into me, even with my eyes on Marco. And as I stepped forward once, it felt like the entire world had shifted on it’s side and I was finding it difficult to stay upright. But I took another step, and there was no way I had had that much to drink…

“Eren, are you alright?” I heard a voice next to my ear and I tried to shake my head, but the spinning only got worse with the movement. I had been fine until I moved my legs. I had been fine. What was in that beer? I know after drinking a lot when you’ve been sitting down for a while, you get the feeling that it all hits you at once when you start moving. It was the same sort of thing, but I had been standing, I just wasn’t walking around and moving my limbs. And I am regretting the decision of doing so.

The room was spinning too fast for me to focus and I closed my eyes. My legs were starting to shake, as were my arms, and I wanted to cry. I could feel the tears pricking at my eyes and I was scared. I wanted to go home. I felt sick. Why was this happening?

“Eren, talk to us.” It was another voice in my other ear, and I could feel a hand on the small of my back urging me to step forward.

“Wh-what - drink?” was all I could get out, my voice incredibly slurred.

What was going on?

I tried to open my eyes again, but the world didn’t stop spinning. We were in the hallway. They must be taking me home. My legs were still shaking, and Jean and Marco were on either side of me, helping me to the door. I closed my eyes again.

But that time closing my eyes was the last time I closed my eyes. And as I felt my legs crumple under me, the last thing I remember hearing was, “That was too easy.” from one of the men I had thought were friends.

**—————**

I don’t know how long I had been out for, but when I woke up I was in a bed. The pillows were soft under my head, and the comforter over top of me was warm. Too warm. My body was warm, and I immediately threw the cover off.

But then realization hit me and my eyes flew open. This was not my room. This was not my bed. This was definitely not my house.

I bolted upright and scanned the room. There were no windows, but there were four walls with two doors. One door looked heavy and had two slots; one at the bottom, and one at eye level. The other door was open, and I could see a sink. I assumed it was a bathroom. Everything was white, and the fluorescent hanging light over me made it painfully white.

I continued to look around the room, and the next thing to catch my eye was a screen on one of the bare walls with a video feed of my house. The sun had set, and Levi’s car was sitting next to mine. Was it even a live feed? Was I watching some recording? Was this planned?

Why was I here?

The rest of the room was empty, aside from a nightstand that had been locked shut with a golden lock, and a lamp.

Looking down at my body, I still had my clothes on. My shoes had been taken off, but I was still fully clothed. My body didn’t hurt, aside from a light ache in my head - but that was easy enough to be explained; I seemed to have been drugged after all.

There were no scratches on my skin, no markings of any kind to be seen or felt. In a sense, I was glad I was safe. But in the very same breath, I just wanted to be at home with Levi and Erwin, on our couch watching stupid, low-budget horror movies.

I was shaken out of my thoughts when there was a rattling at the door, and a few minutes later, Jean slinked into the room and locked the door behind him. He slowly turned around and held up my phone for me to see that Levi was calling. My heart was pounding in my chest and I lifted my arms to reach for the phone, but the man hit decline and pocketed it instead. My heart dropped, and a smile spread across the man’s face. It was a smile that made me uneasy. I was not comfortable in any sense. I was scared, my body was trembling and, god damn it, I just wanted to go home.

“Please let me go home now. I am feeling a lot better.” I said, feeling my voice shake.

“You were too easy, Eren.” he said, walking across the room to look at the television screen mounted on the wall. “Too trusting.”

“I had no reason not to be.” I muttered, looking down at the bed. The tears were threatening to fall once again.

“What was that?” Jean’s voice became more harsh with those three words and I heard him turn on his feet to face me.

I gulped down a lump in my throat before looking up at him, clenching my fists in my lap. “I said, I had no reason not to be trusting.

“We deserve an award for acting.”

The smirk that grew on his face was cruel, and a shiver shot up my spine. My gaze broke away from Jean a few moments later when there was movement on the screen. I watched as Levi walked out of the house, still in his uniform, and to my car, leaning against the window with his hands around his eyes, in search of something. He checked all the windows before ultimately pulling his keys from his pocket to open the doors. I watched as he looked down at the forgotten groceries and I watched as he pulled them from the trunk to leave them on the driveway. I watched as he sat on the bumper of the car, head in his hands as he bent forward, visibly shaking. And at that moment, I let the tears freely fall from my face.

“I need to go home.” I said with a weak voice as I kept my eyes on my fiancé. “I need to go home.” I repeated, and I heard Jean scoff.

“Yeah, that isn’t happening.” Jean said matter-of-factly, crossing his arms across his chest as he walked towards me to stand at the foot of the bed. My body was full on trembling now and what I wouldn’t give to wake up from this awful nightmare…

But I needed to know. “Why?” I asked as my voice cracked.

Jean’s head cocked to the side end the cruel grin widened on his face. My eyes glanced back to the screen as I watched Levi walk towards the camera, losing sight of him once he was under it.

“You were putting a camera up when I came over.” I mumbled, staring straight at the screen. “Washing windows…”

Jean turned around momentarily before looking back down at me. “You catch on quick, Eren.” he said before walking towards the door. “Something tells me we have company.”

And those were the last words Jean said before slipping out of the door and locking it behind him. And those were the last words I heard until I felt myself starting to scream, and cry. And I knew no one was going to hear me, but I didn’t hold back. My throat was raw from the screams being ripped from my body and the tears were freely falling down my face. I fell onto my back and rolled onto my side in complete hysterics. I wanted to go home. I wanted Levi.

My eyes opened a while later as I watched Levi walk away from the house. I watched as he paused before going to the house next to ours. I knew he was looking for me. And as much as that warmed my heart, I was too terrified to let it give me any comfort. And the screams were being pulled to of me once again.

Until I heard the lock jiggle again which caused me to sit up, but this time it was Marco that joined me. He closed the door with his foot and walked towards the nightstand with a peanut butter sandwich on a plate and a glass of milk. Once he had set them down, he moved around to sit at the foot of the bed, eyes trained on the television screen that showed no sign of anyone moving around. I continued to watch Marco, and realized that he seemed nervous. But who was I to judge anymore, he could have been acting again.

“Why?” I asked, my voice hoarse form the screams. My entire body ached.

Marco turned to me a moment later, and there was still a very nervous look about him. He shook his head slowly and sighed before looking to his hands in his lap.

“You should eat something. Your body needs nutrients after what we did to you.” he stated, picking at his jeans.

I frowned, “What did you do to me?”

Marco whipped his head in my direction and gave me this look as though I was a complete idiot. And perhaps, in that moment, I was. “You know, the whole drugging your beer…” he trailed off, squinting his eyes slightly.

I nodded before turning to look at the food that had been placed on the nightstand. “Well, why would I eat anything you offer me now. I don’t trust you.”

“You need to keep your strength. You need food to survive.” he explained with a shrug.

Now it was my turn to squint in his direction. “Aren’t you going to kill me anyway. Isn’t that why I am here?”

“I’m going to explain some things to you, Eren. And I’m only going to explain it to you once.” Marco turned himself to face me, pulling on of his legs up onto the bed as he did so. “This is a game. You may have heard of those men that ran from Sina? Welcome to the Jean and Marco show.” his voice was dry, and it was unkind. It was not the sweet Marco I had met all those weeks before.

“Okay, Marco. If that is, in fact, your real name; why the actual _fuck_ are you doing this?” I knew my choice of words were out of line, but I didn’t care. I wanted answers.

But before Marco could give me anything, Jean entered the room once more. I was outnumbered.

“Would you like to repeat that, Eren?” Marco asked, cocking his head to the side. “Jean might be able to give you an answer.”

Jean walked around to the side of the bed I was not occupying and sat down, eyes on me.

I cleared my throat and closed my eyes before speaking yet again. “Why the ever-loving fuck am I here?”

My eyes shot open when a hand came to grip my chin. Jean was inches away from my face, and I was starting to shake again.

“Do not speak to us in that manner, Eren.” he stated, his voice calm.

I was furious. “Fuck. You.”

Within seconds I was seeing stars as his hand swooped down and crashed into the side of my face. But I kept upright. I could fight this. I could free myself. I could find myself back with my fiancé in no time.

“What did I just say?” Jean’s voice broke myself from my thoughts and I glared at him.

“You know Levi is a cop, right? He’s going to have the whole police force looking for me. They’re going to find you and put you away for the rest of your lives.” My voice was raising with every word, and I knew if looks could kill, they’d both be dead.

Jean laughed at that and I felt his hand grip around my neck, pushing me onto my back. I wriggled under his weight as he crawled over to straddle my hips, keeping his hold on my neck.

“Well, _fuck_ the police. Though, I guess you like doing that, don’t you Eren?”

I reached up and started trying to claw at his hand with my own, but his grip only tightened and it was becoming hard to breath.

“Let me go.” I wheezed out, kicking my legs under him, trying to get him off of me completely. But it was no use, he was stronger than I was, especially in this position. But I wasn’t about to stop trying to break free of his grasp.

The room was starting to spin from the lack of oxygen and over exerting myself soon after. Jean cocked his head to the side and did not loosen his grip.

“You’re going to play by some rules, Eren.” He stated and finally let his hand slack just as black spots were starting to blur my vision. I blinked and kept my eyes up in his direction. “Rule number one: you will do as we tell you. If you disobey, you will be punished. Rule number two: you will keep yourself clean, and you will keep this area clean. There are cleaning supplies in the bathroom for both yourself and the room.” He paused for a moment, pressing his hand around my neck tighter once more. “Rule number three: there are no safe words, so don’t even think about it. It’s just more incentive to stay in line.”

It was once again getting harder to breath and my concentration on the rules were starting to fade. The man pinning me down continued to speak and my sight was getting increasingly blurred. With a wide open mouth, I tried to breathe, but it was difficult and it was starting to hurt.

“Jean…” Marco finally spoke up, and I could feel the bed shift as he stood up, and Jean’s hand loosened. Through blurry eyes, I saw him nod before climbing back off of me as I gasped for air.

“Eat your sandwich and sleep. It’s been a long day, Eren.” I heard Marco say as he walked toward the door.

My entire body ached, and I wanted to fight and be free, but my body protested. I was low on oxygen and the strength I had used to try and get Jean off of me had done a great deal. Sleep sounded great if I was being honest, but I was in no way trusting that peanut butter sandwich sitting on the nightstand.

I watched as the two men left and locked the room back up, and I cried. And I cried until there were no tears left to cry, and it was just dry and quiet whimpers. I wanted to go home. I wanted to go home and be safe with my fiancé and I wanted these two monsters taken care of once and for all. I knew what I was in for with what had been in the news, and I was terrified for my life. That night was the first night I had cried myself to sleep since I was much younger and my father was still around. A million thoughts that I had believed were gone for good once more took over my brain and I was scared. The night I cried myself to sleep sure was a restless one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a lot different than anything I've ever written so I'm really sorry if it's not very good. I did my best~
> 
>  
> 
> [tumblr!](http://tscwrites.tumblr.com)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **** MAJOR TRIGGER AHEAD PROCEED WITH CAUTION ****
> 
> Complete Rape/Non-con is in this chapter, please do not continue if this upsets you in any way!
> 
> If I am missing any triggers so far, PLEASE do not hesitate to tell me. I don't want to upset anyone!!
> 
> This is going to a dark place, my friends. Be weary.
> 
> (( On a happier note, I wanna thank you for all the kudos and comments thus far ^_^ They make me smile! ))

**Day Thirty-one**

One month had past and no one had seen or heard from Eren. The force was out every day searching for him, asking anyone that would know him questions over and over…

His face was in the paper, and his face was in the news and it was breaking my heart more and more every day because I really had no idea where he had gone. I was becoming more and more aware of the situation having a fatal outcome. It had been a month, and we had no trace of Eren. It was as if he had vanished and never existed at all aside from the memories everyone shared of him.

Armin and Mikasa had decided, for my own good, that they’d come and stay in the spare room in the house with me. I was thankful to have them in the house, but it didn’t give me a good chance to be alone. And perhaps that was a good thing, considering just how upset I was. I barely slept, and for a while I barely ate, but Armin insisted on making dinner and shoving it down my throat. And as pissed as I may have been about it, I was forever grateful. Without the two of them, along with the entire neighbourhood, I’d have completely lost my mind.

It was the one month mark, however, that things took a very unfortunate turn. With no new news coming in on Eren’s whereabouts, the local news sources were getting desperate for a story. _Any_ story. And around dinner time that night, there was a knock on the door.

I had been sitting at the dinner table with Mikasa and Armin, discussing plans on postponing the wedding. The subject was a difficult one, because I didn’t want to come to terms with the fact that the day needed to be postponed at all. However, it was probably a wise idea to do so just in case.

I stood up and excused myself from the table to answer the door, and I was met with a chubby man that stood about my height, with a tablet in his hand. He grinned widely as I stood in front of him, crossing my arms across his chest. I recognized him from a couple weeks ago, buzzing around the station. Reporters.

“Can I help you?” I asked, having no intention of letting the man in.

Though the man tried to pass me a couple times, he finally gave up with a sigh. “Levi Ackerman, correct?”

I cocked my eyebrow and tilted my head to the side. “Yes.”

The stout man cleared his throat and turned the screen of his tablet on before pulling a stylus out from behind his ear. “Have you heard any information about the whereabouts of your fiancé, Mr. Eren Jaeger?”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “Look, I’m not in the mood-“

“Had Mr. Jaeger had a history of being unfaithful?”

My brows furrowed at the question and I stood to my full height, or as tall as I could. “What the fuck-“

“Levi, have you considered that he had started an affair with someone and run away to be with them?”

“Who set you up to this? What kind of bullshit-“

I could hear footsteps behind me, and I was glad for their backup as this man seemed to be quite persistent.

“Has there been any confirmation on the whereabouts of the missing men from a few months ago?” He paused, glancing up at me as I shot daggers at him with my eyes. “Have you considered that he may have been captured?”

“What kind of sick joke is this?” I spat, stepping forward towards the man with full intention of throwing him down the front steps. I was seething with rage, but it was Mikasa that stepped in front of me.

“Sir, who the hell do you think you are asking these bullshit questions?” she said, keeping her voice calm as she raised her hand to grab the man by his shirt collar.

The man squeaked slightly as her hand tightened, his eyes darting between the two of us.

“Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps he left because it was in fact his fiancé having the affair with this terrifying woman.”

Mikasa stepped up closer to the reporter, her voice not wavering a single bit as she spoke, “That is my brother-in-law you sick fuck. Get off this property now or so help me god, we will call the cops.”

My eyes widened as I watched her actions. I knew that she was protective as all hell for Eren, but this was the first time I had seen it in full force. i was impressed, and I respected her even further for it.

She dropped the man’s shirt and he stumbled quickly backwards down the stairs. His face was red and starting to sweat, and the terror in his eyes was almost hysterical. He stared up at both of us before looking at the tablet that he had an iron grip on, before looking back up at us.

“Maybe he left because you are a horrifying woman.” His voice cracked with his insult, but he continued to stand proud. “Give the people some answers! What do you believe happened?”

Mikasa slowly descended the stairs as the man continued to shout complete and utter trash. He continued to shout as he slowly walked backwards down the path, and as I watched I felt Armin join me on the front porch.

“I called the cops.” he mumbled, crossing his arms across his chest just like I had earlier. “They’ll probably be here in a few minutes.”

I scoffed quietly and leaned back against the doorframe. “The guy’ll probably shit his pants before he gets here. Mikasa is frightening, I had no idea it was this bad.” I glanced over to the boy beside me who had his eyes trained on the girl. “She’s a good sister.”

Armin sighed and leaned on the opposite doorframe, nodding. “She is, but she gets scarier when she knows Eren is in danger. So, every day has been getting a little worse, and we get this as a result…”

“ _Get back here, you asshole!_ ” I glanced up and caught Mikasa chasing the man down the street towards Isabel and Farlan’s house. However, with her strength and much longer legs to push herself forward, it didn’t take long for her to tackle the stubby man down to the ground.

“Remind me to never piss her off…” I muttered, keeping watch as she took the tablet out of the man’s grasp and sat on his back. Sirens could be heard in the distance, which meant that the ordeal would be over soon.

I heard Armin move beside me until he was sitting down on the top step. I joined him.

“She wouldn’t do anything like this to you, unless you did something to Eren. She does trust you though, she just has a weird way of showing it.” he explained, resting his elbows on his knees.

I nodded slowly and stayed quiet as a squad car finally pulled up in front of the house. I watched as Petra stepped out alongside Auruo and immediately went over to where Mikasa was still pinning the man down.

“You couldn’t get enough at the station, huh? You had to come storming off down here?” I could hear Auruo shout at the man as Petra took Mikasa’s hand to pull her up. “Scum of the earth, reporters.”

I rolled my eyes at the man’s words, hating how he tried far too hard to sound like a badass, when in reality he was a tool. I watched as he cuffed the reporter and dragged him to the car before pushing him into the back seat and locking the door behind him. The two officers and Mikasa made their way back to the house and up the front steps, standing a few down to stand eye level to where we were sitting.

“Sorry you had to deal with that, Levi.” Petra said, scrunching her nose at me as she spoke. “He was causing grief at the station a few hours ago and we finally got him to leave with a warning. Clearly that wasn’t enough for him and he had to come down here himself.”

“Make sure he gets, uh, special treatment. He was asking some awful questions.” I muttered, running my hand through my hair. “He was accusing Mikasa and I of having an affair. Mikasa is a beautiful woman, but that is so incredibly wrong…” I glanced up at the girl who fixed the scarf around her neck. “No offense.”

“None taken. The guy was an ass.” she said, her voice still surprisingly calm after the whole situation. “I overheard the conversation and stepped in. The questions were just outrageous.” she finally let out a sound of annoyance before adding, “And in turn, Eren loves Levi too much to have an affair. And I’d probably kick the shit out of Eren if that was any sort of truth.”

My face flushed and my heart dropped and I felt myself leaning forward to rest my head in my hands.

Armin spoke up beside me. “He was being incredibly rude and not even giving Levi a chance to speak. Not that the questions would have been answered properly by any means, but he was pushing in the wrong direction. As soon as Mikasa walked out, that’s when I called you guys. I won’t put up with outsiders who know nothing provoking these two.” He explained as he rested his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it gently in a way to comfort me. 

I could hear a scratching of a pen on paper and looked up to see Petra taking notes. Auruo was standing behind her, staring at the squad car with his arms crossed.

“Still no news?” I finally asked once the girl had stopped scribbling down her notes.

She pocketed the pad of paper and the pen before looking at me, a sad smile crossing her face as she squatted down in front of me. She reached up and grabbed my hands, squeezing them tightly.

“We are going to find him, Levi. Even if it kills us all.”

I didn’t want to cry, oh god I didn’t want to cry. But as soon as the words left her mouth, I could feel my body starting to tremble and my eyes starting to burn. I nodded slowly and looked down to my lap, furrowing my brow to will away the tears that were threatening to fall.

One month. Eren, please come home…

——————

I was losing track of the days. I knew the sun went up, and I knew the sun went down. I watched it on the screen that I was forced to stare at day in and day out. I watched Levi go to work, and I watched him come home. I watched Mikasa and Armin frequent the house, along with the rest of the neighbours. I watched strangers go to the door and go inside, only to leave a while later. I watched the squad cars drive back and forth and I watched as Mikasa chased a man down the front steps of the house before Petra and Auruo arrived.

I was far beyond upset. I was empty, and broken. Every part of me ached, and not from the way I had been treated. I was emotionally drained. I just wanted to go home, but every day it continued to feel like it would be impossible.

But I was still alive, and for that much I was grateful.

Marco and Jean left me for days at a time, aside from bringing me food. Though when they did come into the room, I learned to play by their rules. If they wanted me to do something, I’d do it. And if I didn’t do it in a timely manner, Jean would make me. I could still feel his hands around my neck after the last time, after I hadn’t cleaned the small bathroom provided for me.

I was shaken from my thoughts when the door burst open. I jumped up from laying on the bed and eyed Jean who slammed the door behind him, not before hearing Marco’s voice carrying down from upstairs. His voice was so muffled though, I couldn’t understand what he had said.

Jean paced back and forth, glaring at the floor as he did so. He had one hand on his hip as the other was placed over his mouth. He was breathing heavily, and I felt very uncomfortable. I’d seen him angry, but not this angry. And this wasn’t anger at me, from what I could tell. I hadn’t done anything for him to be this mad.

“Jean?” I tried, voice shaking out of lack of use.

He continued pacing back and forth for a few more moments before his head shot up to look at me. There was an angry fire in his eyes, and as much as I’d seen him angry right before he’d throw a hit, I’d not seen him _this_ angry. I hadn’t seen this look in anyone’s eyes since I was much younger and dad was still around. I was scared. I know I didn’t do anything, but I was scared. And I wanted Levi to burst through the wall and save me, but that was a ridiculous thought. I glanced at the screen to see that he was sitting on the front porch still with Armin, Mikasa and the officers, huddled over on himself. My heart sank.

My attention moved back to Jean soon after, and he was still staring at me, taking deep breaths. I didn’t know if they were calming him, or if he was really deep in thought. If I was going to be honest, he was really starting to creep me out.

However, all the thoughts vanished when he exited the room. I was confused to say the least. I shifted slightly on the bed and sat with my legs crossed. My eyes moved from the door to the television screen, where it was right in plain view that Levi had broken down in front of the group. My heart sank further, and I wanted to cry.

Again, my attention was drawn away as soon as the door burst open. Jean walked through with a set of chains and dropped them on the floor before closing the door. If I had been quick enough, or strong enough, that would have easily been my time to escape. However, with my lack of movement the past few weeks, my strength had been dwindling.

My eyes moved between Jean and the chains and I was getting a really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I watched as he bent over and started to sort them out before I realized that each of the chains ended with a leather cuff.

“Jean, what are you doing?” I asked, eyes widening as he walked towards me with one of them in his hands.

“Shut up.” He muttered, before locking one end of the chain around the post on the headboard. “Lay on your stomach.”

“What?” I squeaked, shaking my head. “Why?”

“Shut up and do as your told, Eren. Get on your stomach.”

I really knew better than to fight him, but I really wanted to protest. In the end, Jean dropped the chain beside me on the bed and forced me onto my stomach, tightly gripping my body and throwing me down roughly on the mattress. The fear was slowly creeping up and only escalated further when Jean took my wrist and wrapped a leather strap around it before moving back to the headboard and tightening the chain so there was next to no slack when I tugged my arm.

I listened as Jean grabbed another chain and moved around the bed, coming into my view a second later only to lock up my free wrist. I wanted to fight. I really wanted to fight, but was this even worth fighting for? If I disobeyed, they’d hurt me. If I disobeyed, really, they could kill me. I don’t know what I had done to deserve this treatment.

My attention was brought back to earth when I could hear leather moving through metal and a quiet sound of fabric hitting the ground. My stomach dropped, and continued to do so when I could feel the foot of the bed lower down under Jean’s weight. Tears had started pooling in my eyes, because I knew what was happening and I was chained in such a way that I couldn’t stop him.

I felt Jean move up between my legs, his heavy breathing back as I started to tremble. His hands moved up my legs before he moved a hand down to harshly connect with my ass, causing a scream to rip through my mouth.

I had been beaten and thrown around, but this was a whole new low.

Jean was quick to remove the boxers I had been wearing, smacking me once more so hard that I knew I’d have a handprint marking me for months. The second cry out made the tears spill, and I looked up to the screen to see that the officers had left and the three people I loved most were still sitting on the porch.

Jean’s movements were quick as he roughly grabbed my hips to lift them off the bed. I could feel his hard cock pressing against my ass, and I cried. I cried loudly, which only brought on another smack.

“Shut the fuck up, I can’t do this if you’re crying.” he shouted, which only made me cry more and a small shred of hope came to be — if I continued, would he stop?

I was wrong.

The pain that shot through my body a second later was almost unbearable. It had been months since anything had barged into my body, though then Levi always took great care. Jean was the complete opposite and wanted me to be in pain. It was a sensation I had long forgotten. And it didn’t stop, as Jean didn’t give me a minute to find my bearings when his hips pressed against my ass. He reached down with one of his hands, reaching into my hair as he started to roughly thrust himself into me, his nails digging into my hips.

I cried. My body was in pain and in that moment, I was asking for release. Death was welcome.

“Stop crying. Stop fucking crying.” he shouted, his voice was becoming hoarse as he continued his movements.

“Stop. Please stop. Dad, stop.” I whimpered out as he assaulted me from behind. The last bit not meaning to slip up, but it was all too familiar.

Jean paused his movements at my words and scoffed. “I don’t know and I don’t care about what the fuck kind of daddy-kinks you’re into, Jaeger. Shut the _fuck_ up.”

But I couldn’t stop crying. My body felt as though it was up in flames. I hadn’t felt pain like this in nearly two decades. I thought I was being ripped apart from the inside out. I wanted it to end, I wanted it to be over. But that wasn’t how things went. Jean’s hold on me tightened, and my head was starting to hurt from his hand pulling my hair. My eyes were blearily still on the screen, and I wanted to be with them. I needed Levi, and I needed Mikasa and Armin. I needed them. I couldn’t live like this anymore, but there was no way out.

It was when I could feel a hot sensation pouring into me that I was brought back to the awful reality. I was still sobbing profusely as Jean dropped my hips back down to the bed, and I laid unmoving aside from the light shaking from crying. I could hear him moving around at the foot of the bed for a moment before getting back on his feet. My eyes were clenched shut, but I listened to him as he pulled on his pants and threaded his belt through the buckle. I heard the zip of the front of his pants before him padding to the door. Unlock, open, close, lock.

I was alone, soiled and locked up. It hurt, it stung and it was all my worst fears. Everything was flooding back from when I was younger.

I continued to quietly cry until I couldn’t cry anymore. Every breath I took made my body ache even more and I just wanted it to end. And maybe it didn’t end for good, but at some point I did happen to fall asleep.

I woke up a short while later, or what felt like minutes later. I looked at the screen to see that it was in fact night time, and the light in our living room was still on. I turned my head slowly to see Marco coming into the room, a frown set on his face. He looked at me on the bed before setting down a sandwich on the nightstand. He sighed quietly reached into his back pocket, pulling out a key ring with a dozen different keys hanging around it.

He reached over and I reacted quickly by flinching away. He raised his eyebrow and cocked his head to the side, shaking it a few moments after.

“I’m just unlocking you Eren, I promise.” he said softly, a smile crossing his face.

In the past month, he had always had the kind voice that made me feel a little better about the situation. Quite the opposite to Jean’s anger.

“Thank you.” I mumbled weakly, sitting myself up as soon as my wrists were free from the chains. I winced as I sat down, sore from being torn apart a few hours earlier. I looked down at the sheet, cringing slightly at the sight of traces of blood on the otherwise white surface. The tears were stinging my eyes again as I forced myself to look away.

It was happening again. I thought the past was in the past, but of course history has a way of repeating itself in the worst ways.

“I watched your sister throw down a man today.” Marco said as he stood by the door about to leave. “She’s scary.”

I nodded slowly and reached over for half of the sandwich.

“She’s the strongest woman I know other than my mom. You better hope to god she doesn’t find out where I am before Levi does.” I muttered before biting into the corner of the sandwich.

I shot Marco a glare and he only rolled his eyes before leaving and locking up behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, you made it ^_^ I hope that wasn't too bad, it was my first time writing something like that after all. I've actually thought of a few things for the next chapter already, and I'm kind of excited to write it (even though its kind of fucked up.. but I mean, this whole story is completely fucked up...)
> 
> Until then~
> 
> [tumblr!](http://tscwrites.tumblr.com)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  ***** MAJOR TRIGGERS IN THIS CHAPTER PROCEED WITH CAUTION *****   
>  Complete Rape/Non-con is in this chapter, please do not continue if this upsets you in any way!  
> If I am missing any triggers so far, PLEASE do not hesitate to tell me. I don't want to upset anyone!!
> 
> I didn't get a chance to proof this properly, but I will after work! I just wanted to get this up because as gruesome as it may be, I had this chapter sitting in my mind since I posted the last one. Next chapter should mostly be Levi's POV, also!
> 
> (( And again, thank you for all the comments and kudos!! Especially after the last chapter because I was SO nervous posting it. It meant a lot ^_^ ))

The lips against my own were soft, and I couldn’t help the grin that found its way there. My tongue slowly ran over their bottom lip before sucking it into my mouth, nipping playfully and tugging. We parted then only for a moment before the kiss continued, and I let my tongue push into the familiar space of Levi’s mouth as my hands moved up to thread though his hair.

I shifted slightly, sliding into the man’s lap, straddling his legs as I kept the kiss going. I only broke away a while later to press quick kisses on other parts of his face.

“I love you so much.” I whispered into his ear before tugging playfully at his earlobe.

I heard a quiet laugh escape his mouth, but it was a warped version of his laugh. “I love you too, kid.”

My movements stopped and my body felt as though a bucket of ice had been dropped onto me. Levi’s voice was definitely not Levi’s voice. I pulled back to look at his face, and the man I was so in love with was still there with a smile that he reserved only for me. I smiled, feeling my heart start to relax after having sped up in a panic.

I leaned forward to kiss him again as he shifted himself to place me on my back. I grinned once more against his lips before deepening the kiss before groaning softly as he ground himself down against me, and I found myself reacting immediately as I pressed my hips back up against him.

Levi chuckled again, still sounding warped but he was still right in front of me. I looked up at him with hazy eyes and lifted a leg to hook around his body.

“Fuck me, Levi…” I whispered quietly, trying with the best seductive voice I could muster. I was never really one to be talkative in the bedroom, I always felt ridiculous but I knew from the few times I had, Levi had always reacted beautifully.

But within seconds, a hand connected with the side of my face and a scream left my mouth from the pain. I could feel a bruise starting immediately as the hand came down again. Tears were welling in my eyes and I tried to kick and push but I was trapped down. There was something heavy sitting on my small legs and my arms were at my sides unmoving.

I blinked my eyes open, and the sight of Levi had flashed away to another monster. A monster I had long forgotten. I shook my head and I could feel my body trembling. My eyes scanned the room and I realized I was in my childhood bedroom. 

“Eren, be good for dad.” Grisha’s voice was hoarse as it always had been, but much like Levi’s, it was warped and not really his.

“Please. Please, no. Don’t, Dad.” I whined as tears spilled down my cheeks. Another hand connected with my side before I was forced to lay on my front. “Please, please, please.” I continued a quiet chant, hoping for this to stop. My breathing was heavy and ragged and I wanted to let go.

I just needed to let go.

I didn’t want this anymore. Death was welcome.

I woke up then and there, body dripping with sweat and tears streaking down my face. And at the realization of my dream, my body began to shake before the sobs hit me full force.

I’d be okay with death.

—————

**Day Fifty**

I hadn’t seen Jean in a week and I was grateful. Marco had come down every day to deliver food, as usual, and finally on the seventh day with no sign of the other, I finally mustered up the courage to ask.

“Where’s Jean been?” I eyed Marco as he brought in a plate with a sandwich and a few celery sticks along side a glass of orange juice.

“He had to go out of town for the week, he’ll be back tonight.”

“Why?”

Marco’s head turned towards me, his eyebrow raised. “That is a pretty loaded question, Eren. Why, what?”

I rolled my eyes and sat back against the headboard of the bed. “I’ve pretty much given up asking why I am here. Why’s he out of town?”

He gave me a half shrug before turning towards the door. “He got a job and had to do something out of town for the week. No big deal.”

It was my turn to look up at Marco with a raised eyebrow. “You mean that psycho got a job? People really will scrape the bottom of the barrel for employees these days.”

“You watch your tongue, man. Don’t make me send him down here when he gets home.” He turned back towards me as he opened the door. “Usually when he gets back after a trip he’s stressed out. Hell, I may not even need to say anything at all. He may come to, er, _say hello_ anyway.”

And with that, the man disappeared back upstairs and I was once again left to my own devices and my lunch. I shuddered slightly as his words ran though my head once more and groaned. I leaned forward and pressed my face against my hands, squeezing my eyes shut tight. I was far past crying over the situation, but the stinging in my eyes still came much to my dismay.

I took a few deep breaths before sitting back up and opening my eyes. I was going to get through this. I was going to fight this. I wasn’t going to let death be welcome, even if my conscience wanted me to think otherwise.

I ate my sandwich, and I drank my orange juice and I lived.

I was alone for a few hours. In that time, I made the bed and I cleaned the bathroom. They were mundane things, but it was those things that kept me from going completely insane. I had nothing to read, I had no television and watching the neighbourhood wasn’t very entertaining. Levi was at work. Mikasa and Armin were also at work. Our house was empty.

Farlan and Isabel walked by with their dog at one point, and seeing their smiling faces tugged at my heart. But other than them, the street was empty. Though I knew people would be home soon enough.

So, after I had cleaned the bathroom I had nothing else to do. I paced around the room for a while, looking for any vents that maybe I missed the previous day. Unfortunately for me, the room was solid. There was no way out. Maybe there would be tomorrow.

With a loud sigh, I collapsed on the bed face down. At least the bed was still comfortable after being my only thing to sit on for the past…how long had I been here?

I shifted on the bed until my head was on a pillow and I was sprawled across the mattress, slowly letting myself relax. My body was tired, though it had definitely enjoyed the break in being beaten. I sighed quietly as sleep tugged at my eyes. I really did not want to sleep, as sleep brought the dreams and bad memories back.

But sleep was winning. And I blacked out.

However, it only felt like I was out for a few minutes before I was jolted awake by the door slamming open. I slowly rolled onto my back and blinked my eyes until they focused. Jean was staring down at me from the foot of the bed, a villainous grin on his face and his hands behind his back.

“Welcome home.” I said weakly, my voice tired from having just woken up.

“We’re going to have a bit of fun, Eren.” he said, bringing one of his arms out from behind him to display a polaroid camera. I frowned, and he continued. “I found this beauty at a garage sale while I was driving back home and inspiration struck.”

I was still not following, but as he brought forth his other hand, my eyes widened.

“What…” I squeaked out, my voice getting lost in the fear of what was to come.

The grin on Jean’s face widened and he wrapped the camera around his neck with it’s strap.

“Don’t you think it’ll be fun?” he asked, playing with the ball in his hand, rolling it around before grabbing the two straps attached to it and tugging at them.

“No.” I answered honestly, eyeing the gag in his hand. The fear was starting to make me tremble again.

Jean raised his eyebrow and shrugged before walking around the side of the bed.

“Strip.”

“I’m already in my boxers.” I whined, looking down at my already lack of attire.

“I don’t give a fuck. Get rid of them.”

I glared at the man with the camera but did as I was told. I shifted my hips up and pulled the shorts off, tossing them to the end of the bed before once more turning to him to wait for the next order that I knew was coming.

Instead, Jean stayed quiet and stepped towards the bed, kneeling up on one of his knees for leverage to get closer to me. He reached forward and strapped the gag around my head with the ball uncomfortably sitting in my mouth before standing back.

He continued to stay quiet as he paced back and forth around the bed, keeping his eyes on me. I stayed sitting still, arms at my sides but my eyes on him. He was plotting something, and there was a weight in the pit of my stomach.

“Touch yourself.” he said, finally stopping in front of me right at the foot of the bed.

I frowned and shook my head. There was no way in hell. I was completely limp and there was no way that anything in this room would help me. This was the least arousing situation, but Jean thought otherwise.

“God damn it, Jaeger. Get on your knees and touch yourself or so help me god.” he shouted, balling his fists at his sides. The volume of his voice made me jump. I lifted myself up onto my knees and kept my glare on him.

It took me a few moments to muster up the courage to continue. I don’t know why I was so nervous about it, the man had already tore me apart once and seeing me naked wasn’t anything new.

Though my eyes dropped and I noticed that Jean’s hands were on the camera, ready to point and shoot when I was ready. I’d never been in front of a camera nude, and I never really planned on it. But here I was.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes before moving my hand down and over myself. It was a sensation I hadn’t felt in a long time, since I had still been at home with Levi; after a movie and fooling around on the couch, ending with both of us naked and panting on top of each other. 

I opened my eyes once more and watched Jean as his eyes were on me, camera at the ready just below them.

“Get on with it!” he ordered, raising his eyebrows and nodding at my hand. I rolled my eyes.

I moved a hand up and pulled the gag from my mouth slightly in order to talk, only to receive a glare from Jean. I didn’t care. “Have you ever tried to jerk off without being in the mood? It’s not that easy.” I mumbled, putting the ball back and frantically starting to move my hand again. I felt nothing, because I didn’t want to feel anything.

Jean sighed loudly and dropped the camera, letting it bounce against his chest.

“This is ridiculous.” he muttered before turning on his heel towards the door, causing me to jump as he slammed it shut.

I groaned loudly, sitting back on my feet and staring down at myself. I really did not want to do this, but I knew if I didn’t I’d be punished. That’s how things went. I disobeyed, I was beaten. And after the last time I’d seen Jean, I was scared of what he may do.

A few minutes later the man was walking back into the room, throwing a packet at me once he was back at the foot of the bed. His eyebrows were furrowed as he got his hands back on his camera. I looked at the small packet and rolled my eyes, seeing the travel packet of lube.

_Where was this the other week, asshole?_

I sighed against the ball in my mouth and picked up the packet. My hands were shaking as I tore it open and the liquid met my fingers. I really did not want to do this.

But I did it.

With a slicked up hand, I moved back down to go back to work. The sensation had definitely changed for the better, as much as I didn’t want it. It had been a long time, but I moved my hand skillfully, flicking my wrist and teasing the head as I knew I enjoyed.

And slowly, and unfortunately, it worked. That is, for the most part.

I glared up at Jean just as the camera clicked with a flash. I could see a wild grin under the camera and I just wanted to punch him. I knew he’d win if I tried. So instead, I kept my fist moving on myself and closed my eyes. If I was going to get this done, I couldn’t look at that monster.

Levi flashed through my mind immediately, which helped. Levi’s voice crooning in my ear, while it was his hand wrapped around my cock. His hand working over the sensitive skin while his lips danced across my collarbone, slowly south to play over my nipples. It was his actions that sent me further in this whole fucked up situation, as I heard another click from the polaroid camera.

“Good boy, Eren.” Jean muttered, just under his breath but audible enough to hear. It made my movements slow down, because Levi suddenly left my mind and I was stuck with images of being nine and terrified of my own father. But like a good boy, I continued. I worked the half hard dick in my hand as I felt tears starting to sting the corners of my eyes. As thoughts of my father bursting through my bedroom door swarmed my head, my thumb slid over the sensitive slit and I couldn’t help the shudder that took over my body.

The memory of my father’s hoarse voice bellowing throughout the house, knowing that mom and Mikasa were out for the afternoon and no one would hear us. The memory of being thrown onto my bed moments before being torn from my clothes. Memories of feeling as though I was about to die from the pain shooting through me from between my legs, not stopping until my father was satisfied and I was left broken, bleeding and sobbing.

The tears spilled as I grew closer to the edge.

“Are you fucking crying again?” Jean whined, lowering the camera just as I opened my eyes. There were fresh tears on my cheeks and I had to look away, pumping myself faster, wanting to get the whole thing over with.

And I guess the determination I had pleased him, because he was raising his camera again and taking another shot. And within seconds, the shittiest orgasm of my life took over with one last click of the camera.

Or so I thought.

I sat back on my feet as soon as I was finished. My legs were shaking and the tears were running freely down my face. I didn’t care anymore. I couldn’t bring myself to care as I stared blankly at the ribbons of come that had just escaped me. I felt disgusting. So dirty that ten thousand showers would never clean me.

I hadn’t even realized that Jean had left the room until he was coming back in, swinging a pair of handcuffs on his finger. That fucking shit eating grin on his face was starting to piss me off.

“That was just the beginning, Jaeger. Put your hands behind your back.” he ordered, and I did so, allowing him to lock the cold metal around my wrists tightly. Much tighter than Levi ever had.

That was a different story entirely.

Jean, however, didn’t give me time to adjust before he was pushing me face down into the bed, quite close to where I had just soiled the sheets. I heard him shuffle around for a moment, humming and hawing to himself as I figured he was trying to get the best angle for his disgusting game. I still didn’t know what he was playing at. Was this all just for his own pervy collection?

I heard him make a content sound before shuffling back over to the door, opening it slightly.

“Marco, can you give me a hand?” he shouted.

I could hear Marco yell something back, but it was inaudible to me though seconds later I could hear footsteps coming down the stairs. I could hear the two whispering to each other and more shuffling of their feet. I was starting to get antsy being in this position and found myself sitting up. Marco was standing at one corner of the bed, the camera now strapped around his neck and it felt as though a rock dropped in my stomach when I realized just what was going on.

I began shaking my head frantically. This wasn’t happening again.

But it was.

And just as I deserved for disobeying the orders, Jean’s hand connected with the back of my head before smashing my face into the mattress where it had been before. This time, however, the mattress meeting my nose hurt and I wouldn’t be surprised if it had started bleeding from the impact.

The familiar sound of a belt unclasping followed by fabric hitting the floor made me shiver. There was more shuffling before a great pain shot through my body from my back. And again. And again. And I cried out, and I vaguely heard the camera click between whips of what I assumed was Jean’s belt. My father had used the same technique before grounding me, but I didn’t remember it being quite this painful.

The lashes felt like they lasted for hours, but thankfully they stopped. Though, the pain that followed wasn’t much better.

Jean was back up on the bed right behind me, lifting my hips much like he had before. His nails were digging into my skin right where the bruises from before had only started to fade. And without warning, or preparation, or lube that _was still laying on the bed, asshole_ , he was pushing into me full force and I was screaming around the gag in my mouth.

The sobs wracked my body and I couldn’t stop. And the camera clicked as I was once more being torn apart. Jean’s hand moved up my back and into my hair, pulling it so my head was back up off the bed. I blinked as I tried to focus my eyes. My nose was in fact bleeding, the sheets stained red where I had been laying. I could feel the hot liquid slowly trailing down my face, but with my hands locked, I couldn’t wipe it.

Jean grunted behind me as he continued to thrust, tightening his hand in my hair till it hurt and more tears escaped my eyes.

And the camera continued to click, and I could see the pile of polaroids growing. I eye’d Marco, and he seemed to be in pain as well. I really had to wonder what their actual relationship was, because he didn’t really seem all that into this whole situation. Not as much as Jean, that is.

Unlike last time, Jean pulled out before he finished and forced me onto my back which caused me to groan in pain. But the pain was soon pushed to the side as he moved up to straddle my stomach, pulling the gag out of my mouth. And just as I thought I could properly breath again, he was replacing it with his disgusting, bloody cock.

I had never been this violated in my life, and my father had done a lot of things to me. But it was nothing like this. Jean forced his way into my mouth, pressing at the back of my throat and I prayed to whatever god there may be that I wouldn’t puke all over the both of us, because even in a controlled environment, _that_ was not my place of expertise.

The click of the camera brought me back as my teeth dragged across the hard shaft which caused Jean to yelp.

“Don’t fucking do that, asshole.” he groaned, hitting me in the side of the head which caused the room to spin.

He continued to fuck my face and I continued to lay there still because there was no way out aside from biting off his dick, which I really wasn’t sure I could manage. I tested the waters, however and received another blow to the side of the head.

“Quit that.”

His thrusts were becoming erratic and I was thankful that it may be over soon. My body felt wrecked in every sense of the word, and I was ready to pass out or die. And soon enough, I felt a hot liquid pouring into my mouth and down the side of my face.

Once he was finally satisfied, Jean pushed me onto my back and through blurry eyes I could see him turn to Marco, who clicked the camera once more.

“You want in on this, man?” he asked, evil grin back on his flushed face.

Death could come, death could come.

Marco sighed loudly and I was so very thankful for his answer. “I’ll pass. He looks like he’s about to pass out.”

The room was spinning around me and I wanted to sleep, that was true. I felt Jean move off of me and off of the bed.

“Well, even if he’s passed out he’s still game.”

I felt sick to my stomach as I rolled onto my side, spitting the fluid that was in my mouth out onto the already dirty sheets.

“I’m not doing anything.” Marco stated, finality in his voice.

“Your loss. He’s ass is tight and-“

That was the last I heard of the conversation before the door shut behind them. I was left locked up, bleeding, crying and broken. Death was once again welcome.

—————

**Day Fifty-Two**

Almost two months with no sign of Eren. Everyone was starting to lose hope, and as much as I hated to admit it, I was one of those people.

There was still a small part of me that believed we’d find him alive, but at this point, it was really hard to stay optimistic. I was taken off of the case at work after it was becoming far too hard for me to concentrate without breaking down. I was given odd jobs between going out on my usual watch. Eren was always at the front of my mind, and I was really finding it difficult to actually do anything but look for him.

But when I got home that night after a late shift to find a blank envelope in the mailbox, it gave me a whole new reason for trying.

Because I knew he was alive. In pain, yes, but alive. And at eleven o’clock, the entire squad and neighbourhood found out. The search was still on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully this wasn't toooooo bad ^_^ Again, next chapter will mainly revolve around Levi since this chapter did not and we must find out what he's gonna do!
> 
> Until next time~
> 
> [tumblr!!](http://tscwrites.tumblr.com)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The mildest of trigger warnings is in this involving Eren's past. It is literally a paragraph, so it shouldn't be so bad ^_^ Thank yooou for all the kudos and comments, they make me smile!! Enjoy!

I walked into the house after my late shift with the mail that had been dropped off that day. Armin and Mikasa had opted to stay at their own place for the night to give me some time to myself. While I greatly appreciated them being in the house with me, I was looking forward to having some time alone to get my thoughts in order, because the weeks had been stressful and I needed time to deflate.

I threw the mail down on the kitchen counter, pushing them aside for the time being as I figured they were all bills. However, the second envelope in the pile stood out over the rest of them, as it didn’t have any markings on it — it had been dropped off by hand.

Frowning, I walked back to the pile and pulled it out. I turned it in my hands slowly and I felt as though this envelope was important. I tore open the end immediately and dumped the contents on the counter.

The things I saw right away made me want to be sick. There were six photographs, all of which had Eren naked on a bed with his hands on himself, followed by a faceless man having his way with him. Whoever had taken the photographs had blacked out the man’s face. My stomach was turning, knowing that the boy I loved so much was in so much pain. The last picture was taken from behind and I could see dark marks across his back, and it pained me.

But he was alive. Hurt, but alive.

And then I realized there was a word on the bottom of each of the polaroids, and I scrambled to put them in order. And when I had them in the only sentence that made any grammatical sense, I stepped back and covered my mouth. I was going to be sick.

“ _EREN JAEGER IS NEVER COMING BACK_ ”

I whipped my head around to look at the clock to see that it was just past eleven at night. It was late, but this was important. My heart was hammering in my chest as I reached into my pocket for my phone, immediately calling the station. Calling the one person that had been there for me every day at work so far.

One ring, two ring…

“ _Trost Po-_ “

“Petra. I’ve got something.”

There was a phone before the girl on the other end of the phone chuckled quietly.

“ _Levi, the retirement potluck isn’t until next week. You didn’t have to go rushing out —_ “

“No!” I almost shouted into the phone, but I tried my best to keep my voice calm. I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose with my free hand. “Okay, I got home and I got the mail —“

“ _Congratulations, Levi._ ” she sassed with a quiet laugh.

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t be mad at her. I knew she was only trying to keep me from taking a terrible path mentally. I was actually quite grateful for her trying to keep the conversation light.

“Shut up! I tossed the stack of mail on the counter and saw this blank envelope. Eren’s alive, Petra. He’s alive. He’s really badly hurt, I think. But—“

“ _Wait. Wait, slow down. What?_ ”

In my haste to try and get the words out before she cut me off again, I hadn’t realized it sounded like I had spoken another language entirely. I was excited to know he was alive, and the fire that burned with motivation to find him was at an all time high.

I repeated the previous statement before continuing. “Is anyone free to come out here? Can you? This is important, Petra. If we can get any prints off of these, or some other CSI shit, maybe we can find him.”

I heard Petra sigh softly on the other end, and could only envision her looking around the station.

“ _I’ll go, and I’ll bring Hanji._ ” she finally said as I heard shuffling coming from her end. “ _Hang tight, Levi. We’ll be there shortly._ ”

“Thank you.” I said quietly before hanging up, shoving the phone back into my pocket.

My eyes scanned over the photographs, not touching them any further. My prints would be completely looked over, but I didn’t want to make it any harder if there were any others.

I pushed myself away from the counter finally, unable to stomach looking at Eren’s pained face and bruised body anymore and busied myself with making a pot of coffee. It was late, and I usually had tea after work but with this new development, I knew coffee was going to be needed more. This was going to be a long night.

There was a knock on the door a little while later, and I was happy to see Petra and Hanji standing on the porch. I let the two of them in and closed the door behind them as they kicked off their boots. Hanji was practically buzzing as she pulled out a ziplock bag and tweezers from her pockets.

“Where are they?” she asked as I led them into the kitchen. I pointed at the counter where the polaroids laid spread across the marble top.

I turned to grab a few mugs from the cupboard as I heard a quiet gasp. I tilted my head slightly to see Petra looking at the photo’s, hand covering her mouth. I swallowed a lump in my throat seeing her reaction and closed my eyes, setting the mugs on the counter. She’d been on great terms with Eren, so this whole situation was hard on her as well. It was not just me that was suffering.

“When did you get home, Levi?” Hanji asked, pulling a pad of paper out of her pocket, turning herself around to face me. I walked to the coffee pot and filled the three mugs.

“Just before eleven. I came home right after work.” I muttered, putting the coffee pot back into the machine and turning to get the cream out of the fridge. “I wasn’t even going to look at the mail until tomorrow but the blank envelope piqued my interest.”

Hanji nodded as she scrawled sloppily across her note paper. It was a wonder how she understood any of it, but she was smart. And she really never got to use her expertise around Trost, so this was the perfect opportunity for her, despite the situation.

She hummed quietly as she put the pad back into her pocket. I walked back to the coffee mugs and fixed mine with cream and sugar before setting the cream back down, moving away so the girls could do the same.

“They taped the envelope shut, I see.” Hanji said finally, turning back towards the mess in front of her, coffee mug in hands. “Let’s pray to any god that will listen that they weren’t wearing gloves.”

The realization that that could be true made my heart hurt, but I was still optimistic. We were going to find Eren, and we were going to find Eren alive.

“Did you tell anyone else?” Petra asked quietly, sipping on her coffee as she leaned against the counter across from where I was standing.

I nodded slowly before shrugging. “Well, it’s late. I shot a text to people, because it’s just a small bit of evidence. And unless something huge happens within the next-” I paused to look at the clock to see that it was just after midnight. “-in the next six hours, I figured people could handle a text.”

There was a long silence as the three of us drank our coffee. Hanji continued to hover over the photos, and it as much as any other time it would make me incredibly uneasy having her look at nude photographs of my fiancé, I knew that was the last thing she was looking at. She was looking past Eren and at his surroundings. I could almost hear her brain buzzing, trying to put the pieces together.

“First things first, I need to get rid of these black splotches.” Hanji finally said, pointing at the black covering the man’s face. “Wouldn’t that make this thing a lot easier.”

I rolled my eyes and set my mug down. “Is that even possible?” I muttered, folding my arms across my chest. “Would they be stupid enough?”

I saw Hanji shrug, but she didn’t look away. “We can’t exactly judge their intelligence. It would be a sloppy job definitely if they let their fingers get all over these prints. Doubly sloppy if they used a pen that comes off with a dry erase marker.” Hanji stood back up and started to place the prints and the envelope into the ziplock bag with her tweezers. “Don’t worry Levi, I’ll work on these before I do anything else. Not like there’s much else for, what did you call it?”

“CSI shit.” Petra piped up, smirk on her lips on the other side of her coffee mug.

“Yes, I don’t have many other CSI-shit related projects, so of course this will be the only thing on my desk.” She grinned widely and leaned back against the counter, her attention going back to her coffee.

“Thank you, Hanji.” I said as genuinely as possible. There were so many emotions trying to course through me at once, it was a bit overwhelming. I bowed my head as I pinched the bridge of his nose. “I just really hope he’s doing okay, despite those…” I mumbled, waving my free hand in the general direction of the bag of photographs. “Eren’s already been through a lot.”

I raised my head and noticed Petra’s frown, head cocked to the side. “What do you mean?”

I always felt uncomfortable any time I had to discuss Eren’s past, which was usually _with_ Eren, and I definitely was feeling uncomfortable now as I bit the inside of my lip, trying to decide the best way to go about it.

“Eren’s father was a really bad man…” I trailed off, looking to the floor. “When I first met him, he was really shy. It was quite adorable, though the closer I got to him, the more scared he seemed to be of me. The first time I tried to hug him, he flinched away. I backed off and let him make the first move much later. The first time I tried to kiss him, the same thing. Though after half a year of dating, he slowly started to open up to me and I found out why he was the way he was.” I paused for a moment to take a deep breath. “When he was a lot younger, before he was a teenager even, his dad would come into his room and hurt him in every way possible. I am not going into any details, but the stories he told me were horrendous. He’s told me also that he doesn’t remember a lot because he either ended up blacking out, or he’s pushed the memories so far back into his mind that they are permanently gone.”

I glanced up and saw a wide-eyed Petra, resting her head in her hands as she leaned on the counter. Hanji stood by me, hand over her mouth as she kept her eyes on the floor, surprisingly quiet.

“It went on for a few years and finally Carla found out. Cops got involved and Grisha got locked up. Eren was in therapy for years, and goes to check in every so often…” I stayed quiet for a few moments, once more pinching the bridge of my nose. “After seeing those pictures, I am scared for his mental health. I can’t be the only one putting the two together.”

I could feel another panic coming on and I was trying my hardest to will it away. Petra had seen enough of them by now, but Hanji had yet to witness a complete breakdown. I was ready to be by myself for the night, and I was ready for Four-Eyes to get back to the station to start her investigation.

And thankfully for me, Petra read the situation in my favour and left soon after, not before Hanji told me multiple times that she would test the polaroids as soon as she returned. I thanked them an excessive amount of times for coming around so late before locking the door behind them.

With a deep breath, I turned on my heel to the kitchen to begin cleaning the coffee pot and mugs. I knew I wasn’t going to be sleeping tonight, and cleaning was the best way to keep my thoughts clear.

It was about seven in the morning when I finally collapsed on the living room couch. I had cleaned the kitchen, the bathrooms, the bedrooms and the foyer and I was exhausted. I had yet to hear from anyone from the station, and I had not received a single message from anyone in reply to the mass text I had sent before about Eren being alive.

And a few hours later, I was being shaken awake by a friendly faced blond boy hovering over me with two steaming cups of coffee. It took me a few moments to realize that I had in fact fallen asleep on the couch in the clothes that I had changed into earlier to clean, and that I was in fact staring at Armin with the deadliest of glares which I soon softened at the sight of his terrified face.

“Sorry.” he mumbled, setting my coffee down on a coaster on the table.

I cleared my throat as I sat up, rubbing my eyes with the back of my hands.

“S’okay.” I mumbled before yawning. “I cleaned all night.”

“I could smell the bleach from down the street.” he added with a laugh, which got a small smirk onto my face. Though the smirk dropped at his next question. “He’s alive?” He asked as he sat down on the couch beside me.

I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth and slowly nodded. “Yeah. I have a good feeling we are going to get somewhere with the pictures, but seeing him like that…”

I explained the photo’s in further detail with Armin, and it broke my heart further to see him look as upset as he did. I watched as the boy in front of me dropped his head down to look at his lap in hope to hide his watery blue eyes from me. However, the tears falling down his cheeks were in no mood to hide from me. I sighed quietly and scooted closer to him, wrapping my arm around his shoulders and pulling him towards me. Eren was more or less like a brother to him and I knew that he was just as, if not more, upset than I was. Him, Mikasa and myself were basically using each other to keep each other afloat in sanity,

We stayed quiet for a while, sitting close with one another and enjoying our cups of coffee. It was comfortable, and almost relaxing which was something I hadn’t felt in nearly two months. So when my phone started buzzing in my pocket a little while later, it nearly sent us both flying off of the couch.

I pulled the phone out of my pocket and answered as soon as I saw the caller ID.

“Hanji?”

“ _Alright so, good news and bad news._ ”

“What? What’s going on? What is it?”

There was a pause and a sigh before she spoke again. “ _Well, we did find finger prints other than yours. However, with all the data we have, we didn’t find a match. Or rather, we found a match but they seem to not exist…_ ” she trailed off as I heard tapping of a keyboard in the background. “ _We found a match, but nothing about the person seems to make sense. I mean, on our records it says deceased. That’s just fucking impossible._ ”

My heart was pounding in my chest. “There has to be some sort of explanation. Why…”

“ _Whoever it is must have faked their own death. They’re under a fake name, or something. It sounds ridiculous, but who knows._ ”

There was another long pause and I could feel my body start to tense up. Armin shifted beside me, placing his hand on my shoulder which helped relax me just the slightest. I normally wasn’t down with people touching me, but the two of us and Mikasa had grown a lot closer and he was pretty spot on with knowing when I needed comforting.

“ _We’ll find him, Levi. Come hell or high water, we will find him._ ” Hanji spoke softly, which was rare indeed. My heart that had started to race, slowly dropped back down to a regular pace and I slowly nodded.

“We have to.”

“ _We will. I need to attend your wedding! I mean, I bought a dress and everything!_ ”

I chuckled quietly as it felt as though my heart was shattering over again. The wedding was postponed indefinitely and it was the last thing I wanted to talk about.

“You’ll get the chance.” I said weakly before clearing my throat. “I’m going to go though, Hanji. Thank you for calling.”

“ _I’ll continue with these and try and figure out some more things, Levi. Take it easy._ ”

As soon as I hit end call, I was a crying mess as Armin quickly swooped in with his arms tightly around me. Through the broken sobs, I explained everything that Hanji had explained to me and Armin slowly nodded as I spoke.

“I’m really scared for him.” I admitted, sitting back up out of the blond boy’s grasp. “After all he’s already been through…”

“Yeah.” There was a short pause before he spoke up again. “He’ll be found, though.”

“I hope to god you’re right.”

Armin turned to me, a smirk on his face despite the tear stains on his own cheeks. “Levi, when have I ever been wrong?”

I rolled my eyes at he boy’s comment as he sat up on the couch, rubbing his chin with his hand. He turned to me a moment later and squinted.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” he asked, cocking his head to the side before standing up and moving over to the case of DVDs that had been long forgotten in the past few months.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the blu-ray was full of dust. And I knew exactly what he was doing, but I was thankful for it.

I small, genuine smile crossed my face as I leaned to the side, resting my arm on the armrest of the couch and leaning my head in my hand. “Sure, you pick.”

He nodded slowly and turned his attention to the movies. I watched as his eyes scanned over the titles and humming to himself. It took him a few minutes, but he finally stood up straight with a movie in his hand. Through tired blurry eyes, I couldn’t see the cover but he went to work to set up the movie without needing my help. As soon as he was content, he moved back to the couch and settled down next to me, a smile on his face.

“What movie did you pick?” I asked, glancing between him and the television.

The grin on his face widened and he stayed quiet. And as soon as the familiar low-budget film started I wanted to both laugh and cry.

“Eren really loves these crappy movies…” he mumbled quietly, bumping his shoulder with mine. I nodded. “I remember when we were like fourteen and we stayed up all night watching these. There was this same version of _Godzilla_ , and all these really _really_ bad Z-list horror movies. Like you could see the strings on the monsters and junk…” he trailed off quietly and slouched into the couch.

“Thank you, Armin.” I spoke quietly as the beginning credits rolled and I felt him shift. I turned my head to find him looking at me with a raised eyebrow. “For being here constantly.”

Another smile crept onto the blond’s face and he slowly shook his head. “Levi, you’re part of the family. We wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

My eyes pricked with the threat of tears but I held back this time and smiled. 

I was too lucky to have all these good people in my life. The one that made me feel the luckiest however, was still missing and we needed him. I needed him.

But for two hours, Armin and I stayed side by side on the couch and let the movie take over our minds. It was a nice time to relax, and I was grateful for Armin forcing it on me. Even though the movie was absolutely terrible, I enjoyed the two hours nonetheless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel as though I'm going to need to brush up on my "CSI-shit" but I hope this was good enough to start cracking the case ^_^ 
> 
> [tumblr!](http://tscwrites.tumblr.com)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will proofread this when I get back home, I just wanted to get it up~

_”Eren, come on.”_

_I looked up in the direction that the voice came and smiled at the sight of the handsome man in front of me. His dark hair was neatly parted, and he was dressed to the nines in a form fitting suit. He held his hand out to me to take, and I locked our fingers together and followed him up the set of stairs._

_It was our latest vacation away and our last night at the hotel. Levi had told me earlier on that he had something up his sleeve, but I couldn’t even start to guess what it entailed. And as we made our way up the steps to the roof of the hotel, I was still scrambling for any sort of ideas since we had just finished an amazing meal at the high end restaurant downstairs; what else could we be doing?_

_He opened a door and we both walked out onto the roof. He propped the door open with a brick before tugging me closer to the edge of the building. I was nervous being that close to the edge, but the view was breathtaking. The city lights below were bright and the sounds of cars and people were just a dull buzz. It was breathtaking._

_I was brought back to reality when I felt Levi’s hand tighten on mine, only to let go a moment later. I turned to look at him as he stared out at the city lights. I watched as he sucked his bottom lip into his mouth and bit down, only to let it go a moment later when he realized that my eyes were on him._

_He smiled and turned himself towards me. His eyes moved over my face, as if trying to memorize it and I could feel my face start to heat up because of the attention._

_“How did I get so lucky?” he mumbled, barely audible as he reached up to cup my face with one of his hands._

_I raised my eyebrow and shook my head. “What are you talking about?”_

_Levi bit his lip momentarily and dropped his hand down to rest on my chest. He stayed still for a moment before reaching into his pocket with his free hand. When it emerged, his hand was holding something tight, small enough to conceal in his fist. His head lifted back up so his eyes could once more meet mine._

_“Eren…”_

_“Levi….” I mirrored back which earned me a glare, but the glare softened almost immediately and was replaced with a kind look. A look that was reserved only for me._

_“I’ve been thinking about things a lot lately. And I’m shit with words.” Levi paused as his eyebrows furrowed, dropping his head so his face was hidden. “And I am really shit with explaining my emotions.” I nodded as he spoke, nodding because he spoke only the truth. “But this thought has been going through my mind for a few months now and…” He lifted his head back up, eyes once more on mine. “I love you. You know I love you more than anything in this shitty world.”_

_I felt my face flush a deep red and I was thankful for the dim lights on the rooftop. “And I love you…” I mumbled back just before he spoke again._

_“And I kept having this thought like, what if I didn’t have you in my life? I would be fucking miserable because I love you. And I can’t even fathom not loving you. You are my now and always.”_

_My heart was beginning to race. Levi rarely spoke in such a way, but when he did, I was always so happy that tears came to my eyes._

_Levi dropped his head once more and looked to his hand. “Eren, will you do me the honour…” he trailed off as he opened his hand to reveal a ring. It felt like my heart had skipped a thousand times and I had forgotten how to breathe._

Which I had forgotten how to breathe. I shot straight up out of bed, gasping for air with tears streaming down my face and the blankets drenched with sweat. My eyes lowered to my hands where the ring was still looped around my ring finger. I needed to get out of here.

**Day One Hundred-Twenty**

The leaves were starting to change and my favourite time of year was right around the corner. And I was still trapped in a soundproof basement across the street from my house. There would be no crushing fallen leaves, carving jack-o-lanterns or roasting pumpkin seeds for me.

The days and hours all completely blended together in the room, and I had no idea what day it really was. The only thing that gave me any sort of idea was the screen that was still playing a constant video stream of across the street. I continued to watch Levi leave for work, and I continued to watch Levi return home. And I continued to watch Mikasa and Armin visit regularly, and I continued to watch Petra visit and I continued to watch all the rest of the neighbours stop by.

I had been left alone for what felt like weeks, although for all I knew it was only days. Jean hadn’t come downstairs in a while, and Marco had only popped in and out to bring me food. And I was definitely still grateful that they weren’t starving me, even though I was really sick of sandwiches.

I stretched my arms over my head and groaned quietly. They were sore from having done pull-ups earlier.

I had decided that I needed something to do a few weeks ago and tested the door frame to see if it would hold my weight. To my delight, it did. Every day that I woke up, I ate my breakfast sandwich and worked out. I was starting to become frail from barely moving around except to clean, and I didn’t want to waste away anymore. I was going to get out of here with or without a fight. And if I chose to fight; I needed to stop being a weak little mass of flesh.

Breakfast sandwich. Fifty pull-ups, fifty push-ups, fifty sit-ups. Rest. Clean. Dinner sandwich. Repeat.

And with Jean and Marco not bothering me for the past little while, everything had become easier.

I watched the screen and saw the sky starting to darken. It was getting late. Levi should be home soon, and dinner should be brought down soon. I sat on the bed patiently and waited.

And it was as though Marco had read my mind, because a few minutes later the door was being unlocked and he walked through to set the sandwich on the nightstand. He paused for a moment, frowning at the food before turning to the door. He sighed quietly and closed the door before turning back to me.

“Jean didn’t want me to tell you but I really can’t not. There was a shooting at Stonhess Trust today.” he muttered, rubbing his face with his palm. “Trost police were called in. There were officers sent to the hospital…”

My stomach dropped. My breathing became shallow and I could feel tears forming in my eyes. I sat up on my knees and shook my head.

“No…”

“They caught the guy that did it, but…”

“Marco, please tell me-“

“They showed the officers that were shot and -“

“Marco, _please_ tell me Levi-“

“Levi is in critical condition, as are a couple others.”

“No. No, no. No…” My voice was weak as the tears fell. My hands moved up to cover my face as every terrible possibility crossed my mind at once.

“I’m sorry, Eren.” Marco mumbled before slipping out of the room to leave me with my thoughts.

Levi was going to be okay. Levi had to be okay. I needed to get out of here.

—————

Another day with no sign from Eren. His case had once again been put on the back burner much to my dismay. All of the leads Hanji thought she had from the photographs only lead to dead ends. The people that had taken and brought the photos had covered their tracks well. Unfortunately. However, she was still trying her hardest and I was forever grateful for her hard work.

I sighed as I finished up with a stack of paperwork that had been left on my desk before looking at the clock. I was pleased to see that I had finished just in time to head out for my watch at my usual time. I sorted the things on my desk before getting up to head to the car. Every day started to breeze by and feel the same as the last. I was becoming tired.

As soon as I slid into the drivers seat of the squad car, the passenger side door opened and Petra slid in beside me with a grin on her face. “I’m joining you today.”

I gave her a smile back and nodded. “It’ll be nice to have company for a change.” I said quietly, closing my door before starting the car. “I hope you don’t mind if we make a pit stop.”

“Sasha’s bakery, right? I know your routine Levi, I don’t mind at all.”

Despite Eren not being at the bakery, I still made a point to stop for coffee. Sasha was always full of smiles and it put a bit of light into my darkened days.

Once Petra and I were both settled, I pulled out of the driveway and turned down the street. We stayed quiet for a while as I weaved through the streets of Trost. It was quiet today. Schools were back in session and everyone was working hard to get themselves through to the holidays that were looming closer than they felt. 

“Are you doing okay, Levi?” Petra finally spoke up as we neared the bakery and I nodded.

“I suppose. Everything still hurts, but it’s been hurting for so long that it’s a dull ache that’s never going to go away.” I explained, pulling into a space right in front of the bakery.

We both stepped out of the car and I locked up, walking around the back end to join Petra on the other side. I opened the door to let her walk through first and noticed a hand drawn flyer on the window. I paused as I read it over.

_Reward! Have you seen this man? If you have any information, please call Trost Police. You will be rewarded with a lifetime supply of bread (and cake, and coffee, and sandwiches, and soup.)_

I couldn’t help but chuckle quietly at the desperation, but the laugh died quickly as my eyes lowered onto Eren’s smiling face covered in flour. I walked into the bakery immediately, feeling my eyes burn with the familiar feeling of tears. I blinked them away.

“That’s a very creative poster you have there, Sasha.” I said quietly as I stepped up beside Petra at the counter.

Sasha beamed at me and slid a cup of coffee in my direction, already made just how I liked it. Eren had taught her well.

“I thought it could help with any information. I just put it up this morning, actually. So maybe, hopefully…” she trailed off.

I sipped my coffee and leaned against the counter, glancing up at the menu. “I see you’ve changed some things.”

Sasha looked up at the blackboard that hung over the counter before nodding. “Yeah. With the current situation, we can’t really do a lot of what we did before —“

“ _All units to Stonhess Trust. All units to Stonhess Trust. Robbery in progress. Suspect is armed._ ” the voice was fuzzy over the radio on both Petra and my own belts.

I looked up to my partner and my eyes widened as the voice still carried throughout the bakery. It was rare to have something like this happen, and the urgency in the dispatchers voice put me on edge.

“Thanks for the coffee Sasha. We will visit again soon.” Petra said quickly, sliding off her stool and taking one last sip of her coffee.

“I’ll talk to you later, Sash.” I tacked on after, setting my coffee cup down as well and quickly following Petra to the door.

We left the bakery and ran to the squad car, climbing in and taking off as soon as the engine started, completely forgetting about the seat belts as I hit the switch to turn on the sirens. My adrenaline was rushing through my body and I was nervous. We’d been properly trained, of course, but we’d not had an armed robbery since I’d been on the force.

There goes my boring, peaceful life as a Trost police officer.

I weaved through the stopped traffic and my eyes widened further once we had reached our destination. Petra and I had been the first to arrive, although I could hear others on the way. I stopped the car abruptly beside another car that had taken up the parking spot and opened the door. I patted my sides to make sure I had everything on me, as sometimes I did forget. I looked over to Petra, who was looking back at me with eyes the size of dinner plates. We had definitely gotten far too comfortable in our lax town.

A moment later, a few other cars pulled up around ours and I was glad we had backup. I turned around to see Auruo popping his head out of one car, with Gunther and Erd in another. I was feeling better seeing familiar faces, but we still had to get inside.

“Does anyone know whats going on inside?” I turned around to see Petra speaking into her radio, eyes set in front of her on the bank’s doors.

“ _Just like you see in the movies. They’re demanding money._ ” I turned back around to see that Auruo had been the one to reply.

“This isn’t a god damn movie.” I muttered, sliding out the car slightly to grab my gun from the holster. “How the hell are we supposed to get in there without getting shot?”

“Trost wasn’t built with a SWAT team and Sina is too far. It’s up to us, Levi.” Petra’s voice was shaky, as was the rest of my body. There was a sound over the radio before Petra spoke up again. “Do we know what the suspect is armed with?”

“ _The caller just said a gun. Could be any gun._ ”

“ _Watch it be a fucking paintball gun._ ”

“ _Shut up, Auruo._ ”

I sat back in my seat slightly and sighed, rubbing my free hand over my face as I tried to think of a tactic.

“If there weren’t so many fucking stairs up to the place, we’d be able to see in.” I muttered, keeping my hand over my mouth. I stayed quiet for a moment as my brain continued to work, until finally the only logical thing came to mind. “I’m getting the vests from the trunk and I’m going in.”

“Wh- what? Levi, wait!”

After popping the trunk of the car, I slid out of my seat and ran to the back, keeping myself low just in case. 

“You can’t go in there alone!” Petra whispered as she came around the back to join me.

“Well no one else is fucking moving, and nothing will get done if we just sit out here in our cars. If I can’t even save my god damn fiancé, I definitely have to save all the people inside.” the words that left my mouth felt wrong and I could feel a breakdown on it’s way. I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked away from Petra and into the trunk of the car, pulling the bullet-proof vests out.

“Levi…” I felt Petra’s hand on my arm before feeling her press her forehead against my shoulder. “I’m sorry.

I cleared my throat and shook my head. “It’s whatever.” I muttered, trying to steer away from my own words. “Let’s just get our job done so we can get on with our day.”

I slung the vest around my shoulders and buttoned it up the front. I felt ridiculous in it, but I was in no way planning to go in unprepared. Petra had taken the spare vest in the back and ended up looking even more ridiculous than myself. Small people in attire meant for larger people was always a sight to see.

“This is so large…” Petra murmured beside me as we both walked to the stairs hunched over, guns in hand.

“It’s adorable. Now let’s go.”

I looked up the stairs and squinted, trying to detect any movement before stepping up. I turned around and noticed more of the force had arrived and Auruo and Gunther were now following behind Petra and I.

“You guys go to the other side.” I whispered, pointing to the opposite end of the stairs. “We’ll get him from both sides.”

We made it to the top of the stairs a few moments later as a gunshot rang through the building. My stomach dropped and my heart started hammering against my chest. There were people screaming inside, followed by a louder man yelling.

“Shut the _fuck up_! Find me the god damn money or next time that bullet will go into someones fucking face.”

I shuddered slightly as I slid myself towards the door, peering in. The man was standing in the middle of the bank with people cowering down on the floor in front of the tellers. Everyone had their hands up, and the man shook his handgun in his hand. He slowly turned and started pacing, thankfully not noticing Petra and I at the door. His face was covered with a black bandana and he had long hair and glasses, and something really didn’t sit right with me. I’d seen this man in photographs and had hated the man even though I had never met him.

“No fucking way.” I muttered as all the thoughts came back together.

“What?”

“This fucker isn’t even allowed in Trost anymore.” I could feel the anger for the man starting to boil up in my chest and about to explode out of my body as my hand tightened it’s grip on my gun. But I couldn’t do anything reckless, not now.

“What are you talking about?” Petra asked, understandably very confused.

“He was supposed to be rotting in jail. I’m going in.”

“Levi, wait-“

My hand tightened on the gun further as I stood up, wincing slightly after having been in an awkward position. I opened the door slightly and slipped in, thankfully not bringing any attention to myself. But that just wasn’t going to do, because I was taking this bastard down. For the bank, for the force and for Eren.

“Grisha Jaeger, you are under arrest for _everything_ you god damn piece of trash. Put your gun on the ground and—“

The man turned around with wide eyes and raised his gun. I liked to think I had a quicker shot, but the pain that shot through my shoulder a second later was almost unbearable. However, the scream that came from the man when my bullet hit was definitely worth it. His gun was dropped to the side as he fell to his knees. I could see the other three moving in beside me with their guns at the ready as I moved closer to Grisha.

Though perhaps it was my own mistake for not reading the situation properly. The movements on the man’s end were quick as he fell to the side and reached his gun. The last thing I remember was two loud shots and falling to the floor before blacking out from the pain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long :P It's been a busy week.
> 
> [tumblr!](http://tscwrites.tumblr.com)


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Minor triggers in this chapter**. ((Nowhere close to what it has been. Things are just mentioned, and there are no gruesome details.))
> 
> Ahhh, I haven't said it in a while I feel like but thank you, thank you, thank you for all the kudos and the comments ^_^ I got the exact reactions I was going for on the last chapter and that made me smile~ Thank you!!
> 
> Enjoy!

I woke up to the sound of beeping and muffled voices. Despite my eyes still being closed, I knew where I was. Hospitals always smelled the same and it was the first thing to clue me in. Followed by the steady beeps in time with my heart that sped up once trying to shift my body. There was a dull pain in my leg and arm and I knew there was no point in trying to move more just yet. Though it took me a few moments to realize that there was a hand in mine, which made my heart skip a hopeful beat. However upon further inspection by squeezing said hand, I realized it was much smaller than mine. I turned my head slowly and squinted open one eye to see a mess of auburn hair resting on the bed beside me.

A small smile spread across my face at the sight before I let my head fall back to where it had been before. After everything, Petra had stayed right by my side no matter what and I was so eternally grateful. I squeezed her hand once more and let myself drift back to sleep.

I was woken up some time later as hands poked and prodded the painful areas on my leg and shoulder. I groaned quietly and turned my head to find the doctor peering down at me.

“Good morning, Levi!” he greeted with a smile. “I hope you slept alright. I was just checking in on the wounds.”

I nodded slowly and moved my good arm up to rub at my eyes. I was still groggy, but less than I had been earlier. And I was ready for answers.

“What’s the damage?” I asked with a hoarse voice. I definitely needed a glass of water, my throat was dry.

The doctor stepped back to look at his clipboard. “Your shoulder got hit though there is no significant damage since the bullet just grazed you. We’ll keep checking on the bandages and it should heal up quite nicely.” He paused for a moment to read the the sheet a little more. “Then we have your leg.”

“It hurts like a bitch.”

The doctor chuckled behind his clipboard and I could see that he had a bit of a smirk as he spoke. “Well, I can imagine. You were shot twice, though only one bullet stayed. You have a wound on the side of your thigh from another bullet just barely brushing past you, as well as another wound very close to that where the bullet was lodged into your thigh. You are very lucky for the man’s bad aim, let me tell you.”

“I’ll be able to walk, right?” I asked, frowning at the realization that it really could fuck up my walking ability.

The doctor looked up with a kind smile and nodded. “Maybe not right away, but you’re not permanently bed ridden. We’ll get you in a wheelchair and once the wound heals we will get you back up on your feet. I think after that you deserve this time off.”

I rolled my eyes with a sigh. “If you only knew.”

The man squinted slightly and looked back to his clipboard. “I think that is all I have for right now. I’ll get a nurse to pop on down with some water and a bite to eat. You haven’t eaten anything since yesterday, I’m assuming.” I nodded. “Rest up, Levi. I will come back to check on you again before my shift is over.” I nodded again as the man left the room.

I looked around to see that I was indeed alone in a private room. I shifted slightly on the bed before falling back into the too hard pillows and grumbled quietly to myself. Why did this happen? Why wasn’t I fast enough? Why the fuck was Grisha here?

My thoughts flew away a few moments later when Petra walked into the room, a small smile on her face.

“Good morning.” she greeted quietly as she walked towards the bed, no longer in her uniform but instead in a red cardigan and black skirt. I offered her a small smile as she sat down in the chair beside the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Other than the fact I’m in a shit ton of pain, I guess I’m okay.” I answered honestly, wincing slightly as a spark of pain shot through my leg. “And thirsty. The nurse is supposed to bring me water.”

Petra nodded slowly and turned back to look at the door. “It was a complete mess, Levi.” she mumbled quietly, turning back to me a moment later with her eyebrows furrowed. “Gunther is in another room, but not as badly hurt as you are. He got hit in the shin…”

I lifted my good arm once again to cover my face, sighing quietly. “God damn it…”

“On the other hand, Auruo is the one that managed to cuff Grisha. He was doing the whole, ‘anything you say can be used against you’ and nearly bit off his tongue. If the moment hadn’t been a serious one, I’d probably have died laughing…” she said, letting a quiet chuckle escape her. “We sent him back down to Sina though, since that is where he was before. And since he isn’t allowed in Trost, or near Eren…”

“Not that we know where Eren is…”

“Speaking of, we questioned him about Eren’s whereabouts and he seemed to have no idea that he was missing. But he’s really the biggest suspect on that case now, so we will see. I was talking to Sina on the phone, they said that he hadn’t been out for too long so I suppose it all depends on the timeline…” she trailed off as she leaned forward onto the bed.

“I didn’t expect him to be out yet…” I muttered, shaking my head. “When I realized it was him behind that bandana I nearly lost my shit. I could kill that man and not feel a single ounce of regret.”

Petra eyed me for a moment before nodding. “You had a crazy look in your eyes, Levi. But after everything you told me and Hanji, I can understand. But he’s locked back up and the streets are once again safe from Grisha Jaeger, and the most important thing we need to do is get you back on your feet.”

“And find Eren.”

“Of course. And find Eren.”

—————

Three days after the shooting, Jean came downstairs to disable the television.

_“Levi’s gone, so why waste our electricity.”_

Three days after the shooting, the room was silent and dark despite the fluorescent lights flickering overhead. Three days after the shooting, I didn’t know if I even had anything left to live for. What was the point if I didn’t have Levi?

Four days after the shooting, I realized that that thought was incredibly stupid, and I had friends and family waiting for me. I would always love Levi, of course, but my family was still alive. I needed. To. Get. The. Fuck. Out.

Five days after the shooting my workout regime started back up. Push ups, pull ups, sit ups. Anything that I could do to build my muscle, I did. Between sandwiches and cleaning, it’s all I did. And it kept my mind off of mourning the loss of my fiancé.

Six days after the shooting, Jean came downstairs to take out his frustration. It had been a while since he had, and the pent up frustration showed in the way that he treated me. My sore limbs became more sore, there was come and blood smeared on my otherwise newly cleaned sheets and for the first time in weeks I was left as a sobbing, wrecked mess.

Seven days after the shooting, I weighed my options. What was the point of living anymore?

It was the tenth day after the shooting when I finally got back up out of my pit of self pity. Jean had smacked me around a lot for the past few days but on that tenth day, I was ready to fight back. But on that tenth day, he wasn’t the one to come downstairs. Marco was, with my morning sandwich in one hand and a rope in the other.

“Switching today?” I asked, glaring at the freckle-faced man.

“No, I have no interest in hurting people.” he said with a shrug, setting the sandwich down on the nightstand before turning back towards the door, looking at the rope in his other hand. He slowly shook his head before tossing it into the corner of the room, not even mentioning why he had it.

“Marco, can I ask you a question?” I asked as he reached for the door, my curiosity finally getting the better of me.

“Perhaps. What is it? Jean suggested bringing you that because you’ve been less lively than normal.” he muttered, nodding towards the rope.

I cringed and shook my head, shifting slightly on the bed to cross my legs as I tried to think of the best way to word the question. It was rather personal, but after the months of living in the basement, I felt that I deserved to know _something_ about this man. Curiosity was getting the best of me.

“If you’re not interested in hurting people, why do you let this happen? Why are you with Jean?”

Marco bit the inside of his lip and dropped his hand from the door. He was clearly thinking of the question as his eyes furrowed with his eyes set on the floor. 

“It’s a really long story…”

I rolled my eyes and sat back against the headboard, lifting my arms up. “Dude, all I have is time.”

Marco lifted his hand to rub his face before shaking his head. “Not today, Eren.” and before I could get out another word, he was out the door and back upstairs.

It was the following day that surprised me. I had been awake for maybe ten minutes when Marco came downstairs. He slipped in through the door and closed it quietly behind him, though stayed still as he stared at the wall. A few moments passed before he let out a shaky breath and turned around, bringing a fried egg sandwich over to the nightstand.

“You okay?” I asked, raising my eyebrow, genuinely concerned for the man that really had been nothing but kind in the whole fucked up situation.

He slowly stepped back towards the door before stopping. His head was hanging down in front of him and he stayed quiet, unmoving. And when he finally did move, I couldn’t help but jump.

Marco steered himself around to face me, eyebrows furrowed.

“Jean went away on business again today for a few days.” he muttered, crossing his arms across his chest as he spoke.

“You just miss him then?” I questioned as I reached for the sandwich, trying to push out the thoughts of the last time he arrived back from a business trip.

He surprisingly shook his head slowly before leaning back against the wall. “No, that’s not it. I mean yeah, of course. But that’s not…”

“What’s up?”

The boy opposite from me stayed quite for another long moment while I silently ate the sandwich. I could almost see the gears in his mind moving, trying to think of how to explain what he was feeling.

“So I didn’t tell you why I am with him, but I’ve been thinking about that a lot. And today kind of triggered something and I haven’t talked about it. To anyone. For very good reason but I’ve had all these thoughts pent up inside me for years now and the dam is about to burst, Eren.”

I raised my eyebrows as I swallowed the bite of food in my mouth before cocking my head to the side. “Let it out, Marco.”

He bit the inside of his lip before pushing himself off the wall to move to sit on the edge of the bed. I shifted my legs somewhat as to avoid them being crushed but other than that, he had made no move to harm me.

“So I met Jean maybe five years ago? Six?” he squinted slightly as he spoke, questioning himself. “Somewhere in there. He was great. He was charming and kind, and everything you’d want to find in a partner. We had mutual friends that hooked us up. And we dated for a while and it was great…” he trailed off with a quiet sigh, shaking his head. “And then he disappeared without a trace for a few months. But he came back, and we fought but we got past it.”

I scratched the back of my head as I listened, nodding slowly. It was definitely not starting off how I had planned.

“So we were dating again and we went out for dinner one night and we were making out in his car at the time when I started feeling really weird…” he turned to me as he spoke. “You know the feeling.”

I nodded. I felt sick at the memory, but I nodded.

“I woke up in a room like this. I was petrified. I didn’t know what I had done, where I was or what was happening. I was alone in the room. The walls were white, there was no television screen and I barely had a bucket to use as a toilet.” Marco visibly cringed at the memory as he spoke. “Jean showed up after I had started panicking. I saw his face and felt better, but he was different. He wasn’t the Jean that I had been falling for initially.”

I leaned over to set the empty plate back on the nightstand before pulling my legs up against my chest. I leaned forward and rested my arms on my knees to get more comfortable as I listened to Marco’s story.

“He beat me. He raped me. He hurt me in every imaginable way. I have scars across my entire body to prove it.” And as if to prove it, he lifted the bottom of his shirt to show the scars that indeed covered his sides. “I thought he was going to kill me, in all honesty. But that was the first week, the next week he was as kind as can be. I saw a sliver of the man that I had come to keep close to my heart, and in that week and in that following week I thought everything would be okay.” Marco let out a shaky breath at that. “I don’t know how long I was in that room. Weeks, months…”

“What is the date today, anyway?” I cut in, furrowing my brow.

Marco turned his head to me before looking at his watch. “October 15th.”

I cringed slightly and nodded. “Continue…”

“What was that for?” he asked, eyebrows raised. “You cringed at the date.”

I nibbled the inside of my lip and dropped my head a little lower against my arms. “Just an incredibly important date is very close and I’m not talking about Halloween. But it is not my story time. Go on.”

He looked at me for a few moments before finally nodding. “Anyway, I don’t know how long I was in that room. Jean’s moods continued back and forth just the same. He’d be sweet one day, but terrible the next. But finally, somewhere down the road, I managed to talk my way out of the room. I didn’t get to leave the apartment, but I got to leave the room and that was good enough. I could shower, and I could clean and I didn’t feel as completely dirty. He continued to treat me like absolute garbage, but I stuck with him. I wanted to hate him, but I loved him. I still love him.” he paused for a moment, looking at the floor. “I had learned that we weren’t in my hometown anymore. After I had blacked out, we had driven three hours to Sina…”

“Where are you from?”

“Trost…” I was about to nod but I shook my head slowly. He cut me off before I could say anything. “No one reported me missing, I learned. Jean had managed to fix it so it looked like I properly quit my job and moved away. All of my belongings are probably sitting in some garbage dump somewhere, but Jean provided for me. Clothes, shelter and food. A couple years ago, his parents had died in an accident and left him with an incredible sum of money. Really, he doesn’t need to work but he needs to keep moving and needs to keep busy. That is when he bought the house in Sina. Cash up front, and no questions were asked. He trusted me not to go anywhere, and I was allowed to leave the house. And I wasn’t going to squeal to anyone, of course. I wanted to, but I loved him and I didn’t know how well I’d manage without him…”

I closed my eyes as I listened, still nodding every so often. It was a lot to take in, especially after only being awake for a short amount of time.

“We had the girl down there for a long time, and he pressured me to do things to her. I really didn’t want to and it pained me to do so with her crying and I wanted to cry and I apologized to her with every movement and—“ he turned his head towards me to see my turned up nose. “Sorry. I won’t actually go into detail…”

“Thank you.”

“So, from there you basically know the rest of that story anyway. Thank you, news…” he sighed quietly and shook his head. “We fled down here on is whim and I’ve really not left the house much. You know, I don’t want to be found by people I grew up with. I’ve lucked out so far in this neighbourhood. That’s the story.”

I lifted my head up from where I had it rested in my arms and stretched. “Well, now things make a little more sense. So, sorry for being a complete asshole to you cause I really do believe you don’t want to do anything to me.”

“Not at all.”

“Although, I’m not sorry for being an asshole about you guys drugging me.”

“Understandably.” Marco slid off of the bed and stretched his legs. “What’s the important date that’s coming up?” he turned his head towards me as he asked.

My heart pulled in my chest as I thought about it and I closed my eyes because it wasn’t a possible thing to happen anymore. “My wedding.”

“Oh my god.” I peeked my eye open to see Marco covering his face with his hand, shaking his head slowly. “I am sorry, Eren.”

“By the way, who shot up the bank?” I asked, trying to steer the conversation away ever so slightly.”

He squinted slightly as he tried to recall the name. “I think it was…” he trailed off before reaching into his pocket to retrieve his phone. He stayed quiet as he thumbed across his screen and nodded after a moment. “A man in his sixties. Grisha Jaeger.” he turned to me with a raised eyebrow. “Any relation.”

The fried egg sandwich flipped in my stomach and I bolted off of the bed to the bathroom. I was going to be sick. I collapsed in front of the toilet and dry heaved. Tears were in the corners of my eyes and I was starting to sweat. It was a name I hadn’t heard in years. The man wasn’t supposed to be in Trost. He was supposed to be in jail, but he was definitely not allowed in Trost or anywhere near me in general.

“Whoa, what’s going on?” Marco asked quietly, grabbing the cup beside the sink and filling it with water as I continued to make retched noises over the bowl. But the sandwich was staying put and my head was becoming dizzy. I took the water from Marco as he crouched down beside me and handed it over.

“That monster is my father.” I muttered, sipping the water. “I want to say this whole situation was a first, but Jean is the second person to do this to me. That man was the first.”

Marco’s eyes grew so wide that I had expected them to pop out. “No way.”

I nodded and continued sipping the water, my stomach settling ever so slightly.

“He’s locked up again, right?”

Marco nodded and reached back for his phone, opening the article back up. He read for a moment before speaking. “Says he got out on good behaviour and was in Trost against his probation. They captured him after he shot a couple officers and he’s been sent back down to Sina.”

I closed my eyes as I leaned against the wall next to the toilet. He was back in jail after killing my fiancé. The man really had it out for me, for no reason whatsoever. 

“This is so fucked up.” I muttered, covering my face with my free hand though dropping it a moment later as I heard Marco stand back up.

I watched as the other man bit his lip and turned around to walk out of the bathroom. I watched him look at the blank television screen before he moved out of view. I frowned and pushed myself up off of the floor. I set the glass back on the counter and left the bathroom to see Marco fiddling with the wires behind the television.

“What are you doing?”

He stayed quiet as he plugged things back in and continued to stay quiet as he walked around to the other side to hit the power button. A few seconds passed and my house was back on the screen, except…

“What the hell is that?” I asked, pointing at Levi’s car in the driveway. The last I had seen it was not in the driveway, since he was at work. “Marco, tell me. What the fuck is that?”

He turned to me and shook his head slowly. “Keep watch, you’ll find out.”

My eyes were glued to the television screen and I barely registered the fact that Marco had left the room, aside from the soft click of the lock.

Why was Levi’s car in the driveway?

Why was Petra’s car parked in front?

Were they having a fucking wake in the middle of our living room?

That was the only thing that made sense, actually. But it's nearly been two weeks. How did they…

Why…

I don’t know how long I stared at the screen for. Cars passed while friends walked in and out of the house as they normally did. It wasn’t until the sun was starting to set that I realized why Marco turned on the screen. The blinds in the living room were open and the lights were on inside. And the smallest square on the screen I could see Levi on the couch with Petra, watching something on the television that was placed in front of the window.

He was alive.

He was alive.

I needed to get out of here.

Thank you Marco. Thank you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I shall proofread this later!
> 
> [tumblr!](http://tscwrites.tumblr.com)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am totally going to be late for work because of this, but this update is a lot later than I wanted it to be... ehhhh I will proofread it when I get home as well. Enjoy~ (ALSO I wanted to mention and completely forgot until just now because I am awful-- Thank you thank you to everyone that has left comments and kudos!!! it's greatly appreciated ^_^)

“How did you get Jean to let you out?” I asked a few days after our long discussion. It was the day Jean arrived back home and Marco had decided to come down to disconnect the television once more.

He peered up at me from behind the TV before shrugging. “Seduction.”

I sat on the end of the bed as I watched the other man work, cringing at the thought of throwing myself at Jean. “Of course…”

I was getting desperate. I was getting stronger. I was confident I could escape, and I had all the more motivation to get out knowing that Levi was hurt and stuck at home.

He was so close, but so far.

“How would you feel if I tried to seduce your boyfriend though? I mean, realistically?” I asked, leaning back to rest on my hands as I continued to watch Marco set the wires back to where they had been when Jean had unplugged everything.

I saw him raise his eyebrow as he worked, shaking his head slowly. “Well, I mean…” he trailed off before sliding fully out from behind the television. “Under these circumstances, I’ve already seen you two going at it. It hurts me in every way to see him doing that to someone else, but I can’t stop it. That being said, under these circumstances, I understand.” he paused for a moment before glancing up at me. “However, if we just lived a normal life and you were trying to get all up in Jean’s pants, you’d be getting a beat down for sure.”

I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped my mouth. “I can’t picture you throwing a punch, Marco.”

Marco sighed quietly before shrugging. “I’ve never thrown a punch, so I can understand that.” he mumbled quietly before walking towards the bed. He sat down next to me and turned his head to look in my direction. “I’m gonna be honest here — I am torn on this whole situation.” he frowned as he spoke. “I really hate what he is doing to you. And what was done to that girl. And everything in between…” He paused for a moment, picking a piece of dust off of his jeans. “But at the same time, I could easily help you out the door but I am not ready to be locked up behind bars. And if he knew that I helped you out, god only knows what would happen to me. Hell, I’d probably not make it to jail.” He turned back towards me before shrugging. “I’d be dead faster than the speed of light and he’d flee.”

I nodded slowly and looked at the floor beneath my feet. The whole situation was incredibly fucked up. And despite the fact that Marco and I were on an okay sort of basis, I fully believed the bastard belonged behind bars with his beloved boyfriend. Maybe not for a lifetime like Jean, but definitely time with some serious psychiatric help.

I knew as soon as I was free I’d wind up in the hospital again, telling the doctors where Jean touched me on a stuffed bear.

I shuddered slightly which caused Marco to eye me suspiciously. I shook my head. 

“If you helped me out, I would be eternally grateful. I mean, I’d probably still send you to jail but either way, you wouldn’t be getting quite the sentencing as Jean would.” I said with a shrug, turning my head towards him to see him nod. “Look, Marco. I’m not pressuring you to help me because I know how hard it probably is for you to betray someone you love. I know I couldn’t do that with Levi. But I am determined to get the hell out of here because my fiancé looks like he’s in a hell of a lot of pain and Petra can’t be the one fawning all over him forever. I’m starting to get kind of jealous.”

Marco chuckled quietly and nodded again, sucking his bottom lip into his mouth. He stayed quiet for a moment and frowned, glaring at the floor.

“Oh, I wanted to ask you before I forget.” he said finally, face softening and turning towards me. “What was the recipe for those cupcakes.”

I blinked as I stared at him, trying to compute the simple question. It was definitely the last thing on my mind at that point and it took me a moment to realize just what he was asking for.

“Oh. Oh, yeah. Bring me some paper and a pen and I’ll write it down.” I paused for a moment before adding. “Or if you still have my phone, it’s in the notes.”

A small smile spread across Marco’s face before he nodded. “I’ll try to find it in there, if not I’ll come back down.”

I wanted to ask why he needed the recipe, but he was out the door before I could form the words. With a sigh, I fell back against the bed and threw one of my arms above my head while the other trailed down to scratch my bare stomach. I needed to start thinking of strategies to free myself from the confines of the basement. 

At one point or another in my swarm of thoughts I had fallen asleep and was shaken awake at the sound of the door opening. I peeked one eye open as I sat up on my arms before finally focusing on the figure walking through the door.

Jean had returned and his face read anger. But this could work.

Strategy number one was now commencing.

Jean turned to close the door while I climbed up onto my knees on the bed. I watched as he turned around and I kept my eyes on him as he walked towards me. A small smirk played on my lips as he sneered back at me.

“You look like you’ve had a rough week.” I purred, running my hand along his chest once he was in my reach. I leaned forward slightly, just barely at the same level as him on the bed and nibbled lightly at his earlobe before whispering, “I will gladly help you relax.”

Jean’s hand immediately found the front of my chest before he pushed me back forcefully. He scoffed as he shook his head, crossing his arms across his chest.

“What the fuck are you trying to do, Eren?” he spat, glaring down at me.

Strategy one point five was now in order.

I stretched myself out on the bed and arched my back, pushing one of my hands down into my shorts.

“I’ve just been so…” my face flushed at the words that were about to come out of my mouth. Talking dirty was not my forte, especially after one time in particular with Levi. “ _So_ horny lately, Jean.” I finished, gripping my limp cock in my hand. “I need you.” I whispered before throwing my head back against the mattress as I let out a moan, albeit fake, as I tried to at least some sort of an erection.

_Think sexy thoughts, think sexy thoughts. Levi. Levi naked. Levi naked on our bed. Levi not naked but Levi in a maids dress like that one Halloween._

I could feel my face start to heat up as I peeked an eye at Jean. He looked down at me and it only seemed like I was pissing him off further.

“Please Jean.” I whined, stroking myself slowly under the fabric of my shorts. 

“You’re disgusting.” he muttered, walking around the side of the bed.

It was then, that I realized, maybe these strategies weren’t the greatest because seconds later a fist was knocking against the side of my head and everything started to spin. I was going to have to continue strategizing at a later time, because it was then that I turned into Jean’s post-business trip punching bag.

—————

**Day One Hundred-Forty**

I sighed quietly as I sat on the couch in the living room. I was sat up with pillows surrounding me, a cane to the side and my leg up on a chair that had been pulled from the dining room. I had been left alone today for the first time since I arrived back home, and I had nothing to do other than watch movies. It was the first time I was thankful for Eren’s subscription to Netflix.

But it was while I was in the midst of my third (fourth?) movie that the front door opened. I turned my head to see Armin kicking his shoes off in the hallway and a small smile found its way on my lips. I watched as the boy looked as though he was about to head to the kitchen before he turned his head to find me in the living room. He beamed at me and walked in.

“I’ve been sent to take Mikasa’s place in taking you to the hospital today.” he announced, sitting on the couch with me, turning his head to the television. “What are you watching?”

I looked from him to the screen before scrunching up my face. “I don’t even know anymore. I’m randomly making my way through the horror section on Netflix.”

I could feel Armin’s eyes back on me. “You are a brave soul, Levi. Brave soul.” he paused for a moment before standing up. “But we should get moving, we don’t want to be late.”

I laughed a bit louder than I intended and covered my mouth with my good arm to muffle the sound. After lowering it, I turned my head towards Armin. “You’re kidding, right? I go to the hospital with an appointment and I end up waiting there for an extra hour before I get in. It’s been happening every day since they discharged me, man.”

Armin sighed quietly and tilted his head back. “Maybe so, but you can never be too sure. Maybe they’re on schedule today.”

I cocked my eyebrow and shook my head. “Fine, fine. But if we are stuck there for an hour you are buying me a fucking coffee.”

Armin brought his head back up straight and grinned down at me. “Done deal.”

And an hour later, we were sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, half an hour after my appointment was scheduled to start. I turned my head to Armin as I awkwardly sat in the stiff seat, glaring at the side of his head. It took him a few seconds to catch on, and as he jumped in the seat next to mine I couldn’t help but smirk.

“Do you want your coffee now, or later?” he asked quietly, rubbing his face with both of his hands as to hide the shocked look on his face.

I looked around the waiting room and remembered there was a small coffee shop near the main entrance not too far from where we were sitting. “I could actually go for one now.” I said quietly. “Dark roast, two cream, one sugar.” I added as I watched the blond boy stand up.

He rolled his eyes and gave a rather sarcastic, “Yes, your highness.” before wandering down the hall as I chuckled quietly to myself.

I sat there quietly for a short while, not really minding being completely alone. I was used to hospitals, and I was used to Mikasa or Petra dropping me off to go run errands until I was done. Armin, however, had insisted on staying by my side. 

“Levi?”

I glanced up, shaken from my thoughts to see a familiar face in a long white jacket. I frowned slightly before letting my eyes soften.

“Hey, Jean.” I mumbled, lifting my good arm to rub my eyes.

“Sorry we haven’t really been in contact, even though we live right across the street. Things have been insane and I just got back from a business trip a couple days ago.” he said with a quiet laugh. “How have you been making out?”

I blinked slowly at him before giving him a half shrug. “It hasn’t been terrible, but it hasn’t been great. Obviously.” I sighed quietly. “Still no Eren, and I’ve got bullet holes in my body thanks to his asshole of a dad, so. Things can only look up from here, right?”

There was something in Jean’s face I couldn’t read that unnerved me, but the smile that broke through hid it a little better.

“That is right. Things will get back on track, I’m sure of it.” he said, playing with the clipboard in his hand as Armin sat back down.

“Dark roast, two cream and one sugar for your majesty.” he said, presenting me with the steaming cup as I rolled my eyes.

“Shut the hell up, mushroom.”

Armin poked his tongue out before glancing up at Jean. “Oh, are you the doctor?”

Jean raised his eyebrow a bit before shaking his head. “No, no. Well, I am one but, no. Not Levi’s doctor. I’m here to head to the psych ward to talk to some patients.” he said with a shrug. “But Levi?” My attention was taken away from the delicious coffee in front of me and I raised my eyes to look up at the neighbour. “If you ever need to talk about anything, you know…” he paused, nodding a bit. “You’re more than welcome to stop by. Just by seeing you like this, I know that walking probably isn’t that wise but, even still, you’re always welcome.”

A small smile tugged at the corner of my lips and I nodded. “Thanks, Jean.”

He smiled back before turning on his heel and heading to the elevators. As soon as he was out of earshot, I turned back to my coffee as Armin hummed.

“What is it?” I asked, glancing over to him as he leaned on the armrest between both of our seats.

“I don’t know but…” he trailed off, glaring off down the hall. “I just got a really bad vibe from that guy. I can’t place it.”

“You too?” I asked softly before sipping my coffee. “Marco, his boyfriend, he’s sweet and charming. But the day I first met Jean something struck me that seemed a bit off but I haven’t been able to pin point it. Something about his face…”

“He looks like a horse.”

My chest tightened a bit and I closed my eyes. Now wasn’t the time for having a breakdown.

“Eren said that exact thing, and I agreed. And then he said he was going to make a cake out of hay for the party they threw once a bunch of us were settled into the neighbourhood.”

Armin chuckled quietly and lifted himself back to properly sit in his seat. “Have there been any other leads?” he asked quietly after a moment.

I slowly shook my head and set my arms on the arm rests now that he was out of the way, leaving the coffee in my good hand while the other was relaxed.

“Not yet, no. No one knows where to even start anymore.”

It was then that Armin took me by surprise and took the hand of my bad arm into his own, squeezing it tight. I turned my head slowly to look at him and he smiled at me. “He’s strong, you know. He’s going to make it back.”

A sad smile crossed my face and I sighed. “I can’t be too sure about that anymore. I can only hope you are right.”

And it was three hours later that we made it back to the house after waiting an hour and a half for the appointment just to get bandages changed.

Ridiculous. Ri-dic-u-lous.

Armin got me settled and brought me a plate of pasta that Annie had brought over a few days before that was still sitting in the fridge. Despite not being hungry 99% of the time, I still forced the food down my throat. And after I had eaten the food and Armin cleaned up my mess, he left to go back home for the night.

And it was while I was in the middle of my fifth (sixth?) movie on Netflix that my phone buzzed in my pocket signalling a text message.

_From: Eren_

My heart stopped in my chest and my hand began to shake. My eyes widened and I opened the message to find that it was a picture message.

Eren grinned at the camera while sitting on a bed that I recognized from the photos that had been dropped in my mailbox. He was looking right at the camera, and his bright green eyes stared right back at me while bruises littered his face and his chest and I could feel tears welling in my own as my phone vibrated again in my hand with a follow up message.

_He misses you more than you know. He loves you more than you know. Eren may make it back sooner than you think._

My breathing stopped, only to quicken to a pace where I needed to close my eyes and settle myself down.

This was happening.

He was still alive. He was safe. And somehow his phone was on.

His phone was on.

My eyes flew open and I quickly found his number in the contacts and called him. But lo and behold, the cell phone had been shut back off as it went straight to voicemail. And hearing his voice broke my heart.

And I missed him more than he knew. And I loved I’m more than he knew. But he was going to come back.

It took me a few moments to settle myself before taking a screenshot of my phone, as well as saving the picture. I quickly sent it out to Petra and Hanji before setting the phone back down.

I could only hope that things, in fact, were looking up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [tumblr!](http://tscwrites.tumblr.com)


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the home stretch and I was really excited to get this up!! I can't believe it's nearly over already.
> 
> And ahhh, the comments and the kudos and everything I adore each and every one of them and thank you!! <3
> 
> Enjoy!

“ _When did you get that text?_ ”

The voice on the other end of my phone was nearly frantic and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

“Petra, calm down and look at it again. The time stamp is on there and everything. You can see the last time he texted me before he went missing, even.”

There was a pause and I could hear tapping of keys in the background as Petra quietly made noises to herself.

“ _Have you tried calling him again?_ ”

I let my head slowly fall back against the back of the couch and I sighed. I held the phone up above my face as I hit the button to turn on speaker phone and set it on the armrest.

“A few times, yeah. It just goes back to voicemail.” I muttered. “We can’t do anything to track it, can we? Since it’s off?”

There was another pause and Petra hummed. “ _We can track it to the last time it was used, I think. I’m going to let you go, Levi, and I’m going to head downstairs to talk to Hanji about this. I’ll see if she can get something together since this is more area of expertise._ ”

I nodded to myself, knowing that the woman wasn’t able to see me through the phone. Knowing that she was on the way to the other woman that knew best made me feel more at ease.

“Thank you, and let me know whats going on.”

“ _Of course. Take it easy, darling._ ”

I chuckled quietly to myself as I hit the phone to hang up the call before moving my hand up to rub my face. It was a lot later than I had realized by the time I had gotten off the phone, after spending half the day at the hospital. I yawned quietly and grabbed my crutches that were leaning against the couch and got up, throwing my phone back in my back pocket I needed to get to bed.

It was the afternoon of the following day when I had received a phone call from Hanji.

“ _So, I tried to do my magic to see if I could pin point where Eren was and…_ ” she trailed off, which only made me roll my eyes. Hanji was big on suspense, even if she never realized it.

“And?”

She sighed quietly and I could hear her typing something out on her end, clearly still working on the task at hand. “ _His phone was last seen used on the same tower that covers your neighbourhood and that whole surrounding area. Which is a pretty large area, Levi. Your phone is currently going off the same tower._ ”

I took everything she said and replayed it though my head a few times before, “You mean he’s still in this area?”

“ _That is what I am saying, yes._ ”

“He hasn’t left town, he’s in the area. He is not in the main city, he’s in this area. You realize that does narrow it down, right?”

Hanji sighed again and I could just picture her pinching the bridge of her nose under where her glasses sat. “ _He’s in the area, but it doesn’t pinpoint his location exactly. Of course, that would just be too easy. He’s not in the main town, that is for sure. He is a lot closer than we all thought._ ” The woman on the other end paused once more before continuing. “ _We are a bit closer though, so that is good. As you know, though, the case is one that is on the back burner. I will bring it up to the chief today when I see him though and I’m sure we’ll have it back up and being a main concern. Since, you know…_ ”

“It’s Trost. Nothing happens in Trost.” I drawled, rolling my eyes.

“ _Exactly. Actually, I think I just heard him arrive so I am going to go talk to him now. Take care of yourself Levi, I’ll talk to you soon._ ”

“Thank you Hanji.”

And with that, I hung up my phone and set it down on the arm of the couch. I had once again taken refuge in the living room while I waited for Mikasa to pick me up to go to the hospital for my daily appointment of bandages. I glanced at the clock to see that she would be here shortly before looking outside. The sun was shining and there was a light breeze, and I decided to push myself up off the couch to get my jacket and slip on a pair of loafers. I wasn’t in the best shape to get into a pair of sneakers on my own.

I opened the door and stepped out onto the porch a little while later, taking a deep breath of the fall air. Halloween was less than a week away and the house remained bare. It was Eren’s favourite holiday, and I was used to him carving pumpkins for work and our apartment balcony, and putting pumpkin and pumpkin spices into everything he baked. This year, however, was a little different.

I sighed quietly as I managed to sit myself down in one of the chairs we had on the patio as I waited for Mikasa. The sun was warm on the skin, but the breeze was cool enough to make it comfortable. The neighbourhood was quiet, and after a small bit of news in Eren’s whereabouts, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit optimistic. He was going to come home.

**Day One Hundred Forty-Three**

Three days before Halloween, there was a knock at the door. I grumbled quietly and pushed myself up off the couch before grabbing my crutches and making my way to the door. I unlocked it before stepping back to open it. Marco was standing on the other side with a tray in his hand, and a small smile on his face.

“Hey, Marco.” I greeted, hopping to the side to let the man in.

“Hi.” He greeted back quietly as he walked in, stepping out of his shoes with ease. “Sorry I haven’t been over since…” I nodded as he trailed off, watching as his cheeks turned a shade of pink. “I, uh, brought you some cupcakes.”

I raised my eyebrow as I followed him to the kitchen where he set the tray down on the counter. He pulled back the top aluminum to show me them.

“What kind are they?” I asked, eyeing them. I’d seen a lot of cupcakes in my day, and something was familiar about these ones.

“Um, coconut.” he said quietly, glancing to the small cakes. “With cream cheese icing.”

I bit the inside of my lip as I nodded slowly. Something was irking me, but I wasn’t going to go ballistic on Marco about it. Coconut cupcakes with cream cheese icing were my cupcake of choice, after all. But still…

“How did you know these were my favourite?” I asked, glancing away from the cakes to Marco as I shifted myself onto my better leg.

Seeing my awkward movement, Marco’s eyes widened and he ran around to the kitchen table to bring me a chair. He stayed quiet as I sat down and moved to lean against the counter.

“Well, before Eren went missing…” he frowned slightly and shook his head. “We actually talked a lot about baking because I like to cook so I was asking for some pointers since he likes to bake and he mentioned that they were your favourite and I happened to be going through some recipes and was like, ‘oh hey! I should take something over to Levi since I am a terrible neighbour that hasn’t made sure he’s okay!’ and so here we are now.”

I slowly nodded before letting a small smile spread across my face. It was a sweet gesture, albeit strange given the current standing of Eren’s case. But sweet.

“Well, thank you Marco. Really. I will devour each and every one of them.”

A wide grin covered the boy’s face at my words and he pushed himself away from the counter.

“I really do hope you enjoy them, Levi. But I should be heading back now.” He stopped to pull his phone from his pocket to check the time. “Jean should be home from work soon and I need to get to making dinner.”

I pulled myself back off the chair to head back to the front door with Marco trailing behind me. I waited quietly as he slipped back into his shoes and opened the door. As he stepped out onto the patio, he stopped and turned back to me where I had my hand on the door about to close it.

“He’s going to come back, you know.” he said softly before letting a small, almost sad smile cross his face. “I have faith that he’ll come back.”

I nibbled the inside of my lip and forced myself to nod. I don’t know why, but I felt like he was trying to get a rise out of me. I wasn’t going to give in to the temptation, even if that wasn’t his real intention.

“We’ve got some things to work off of right now. I know he’ll be back.” I said, keeping my voice as calm as possible. “Have a good night Marco, and thank you.”

And with that, I closed the door and turned the lock before pressing my head against the doorframe. I took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves before hobbling back to the kitchen. I hopped to the counter with my crutches before stopping in front of the cupcakes. They really did look good, but I was unsure if I could stomach eating one of Eren’s specialties when he wasn’t the one that provided them.

I looked away from the food and turned myself to lean on the counter, holding myself up on my better leg. I sighed quietly, unable to shake the weird feeling that had come over me while Marco was in the house.

There was something about him that did not sit right with me. And it was then that I pulled out my phone to shoot Petra a text.

_To: Petra_

_Is there any chance you can come over tonight? I need to get some really strange theories out of my head._

It only took a few moments to receive a reply to confirm she’d arrive after work. I’d only have to keep myself busy for a couple hours until then.

—————

“I think I made him cry.”

“Marco!” I whined, looking up at the freckled face man in front of me while I sat in the centre of the bed in my usual attire — my boxers. “You weren’t supposed to do that.”

Marco rolled his eyes and leaned against the door, crossing his arms across his chest. “It’s not like I meant to. I took over some cupcakes, and he was curious as to why I knew they were his favourite. And then I told him I was sure you’d get back to him and he gave me some weird look and shut the door in my face, more or less.”

I sighed as I leaned forward, resting my head in my hands. “I need to get out of here. Marco, you need to help me.”

I could hear Marco shuffling in front of me before feeling the foot of the bed sink down. I glanced up to see the boy right in front of my face. My eyes widened and I pulled back.

“You know I can’t exactly do that.” he whispered. “But I know you’ve been building yourself up to get past Jean and I have to say I am quite impressed.”

I groaned and reached up, cupping his face with my hands. “Marco, you could get me out of here easily. And we could both turn in Jean, and yes you would go to jail but this way Jean would not hurt you. Don’t you see it is the best option? My fiancé needs me, and I’m supposed to be getting married in a few days if I have today’s date correct, and I just…”

“Eren, I can’t —“

“Marco! You can! I get that you’re scared and that you don’t want to betray Jean because you love him but look what he has done to you. You can’t see your family because everyone thinks you’ve died. You’re scared to go to the grocery store for the exact same reason.”

“But—“

“No! You listen to me, Marco. I understand that you love him. I know I’d be struggling to if this was myself and Levi, but its you and Jean. And it’s an unfortunate event and circumstances, but I know that you helping me out is going to be the best way for the both of us to get out of here. And you can get your life back on track once you get actual freedom. And Jean can—“

I trailed off and looked to the door as I heard it open. I dropped my hands from Marco’s face and let them sit on the bed beside me as Jean stepped into the room with his eyebrows raised.

“I seem to be interrupting something. Marco, I had no idea you’d taken that sort of interest in Eren. But, forget that. You were saying? Jean can what?”

I tried to swallow the lump that had formed in my throat. I shook my head and I felt my body begin to shake. How soundproof was the door, exactly? How much did Jean hear?

“Jean can _what?_ ” he asked again, a little louder as he walked towards the bed. I eyed the open door, but I knew with the both of them, there was no way that I’d be able to get through. Marco wouldn’t turn on Jean just like that, would he?

“J-Jean can…” I stuttered, looking to Marco for a bit of help. I couldn’t exactly continue my thought to the guy’s face, after all.

“Have you forgotten how to speak, Jaeger?”

“N-no. No I haven’t.”

I kept my eyes away from Jean’s face, and watched Marco out of the corner of my eye move to behind Jean and to the door. Jean, however, paid his boyfriend no mind and kept his eyes on me.

“Then finish the fucking sentence, Eren. What can I do?”

I slowly raised my eyes to see Marco standing at the open door, nodding to the forgotten length of rope that he had tossed there weeks ago. A plan was slowly formulating in my mind. It was messy, but it had the potential to get me out. It was now or never.

I took a deep breath and lifted my head up to stare Jean right in the eyes. I lifted myself up onto my knees and crawled towards him, running my hands up and over his chest. I tried my best to give him a look full of lust, though I knew it was probably nothing but disgust. It was a look I was trying to get better at, especially at my last failed attempt at seducing him to gain my freedom. A small smile spread across my face as my hands stopped on his body, taking another breather.

My eyes locked back with his.

“You can go fuck yourself.” I spat, and with one quick movement, I pushed the man back and jumped off the bed. Unfortunately, I landed a bit on the wobbly side but I scooped up the rope and ran out of the room which killed my head start.

“Fucking grab him, Marco!” I heard Jean yell as I looked around the dim basement outside of the room. I squinted before finding the stairs in front of me. My heart was racing and I was so close to freedom.

“Oh Eren, come back here.” I heard Marco deadpan and I wanted to laugh at the tone of his voice, but I couldn’t waste my energy on laughter just yet. I needed out.

But as I made my way to the top of the stairs, I heard Marco yell loudly followed by clatter that shook the staircase. I opened the door to the main house and glanced behind me to see Marco, who was still making a hell of a lot of noise, crumpled at the bottom of the stairs with Jean right on my tail.

“You’re not getting away, Eren.” he yelled, taking the last steps two at a time as I tried to get around the door and down the hall. Though much to my dismay, I felt a hand around my wrist within seconds.

Jean was faster than he looked.

“Fucking let me go!” I screamed at him, trying my best to yank my arm from his iron grip as he tried to pull me back to the basement.

“No! You do not deserve to be out of the room. You have disobeyed the rules, Eren.”

“Fuck your rules!” I yelled, trying to keep my voice as loud as possible. The basement may have been sound proof, but the rest of the house couldn’t have been. “Fuck your rules, and fuck you, Jean.”

“Where are you even going to go? Levi is dead, Eren. He was shot. Dead. Gone from the living world.”

My eyes narrowed at the man who was still trying his hardest to pull me back to the stairs. My legs were starting to ache as I kept my feet planted in place, glad that my bare feet weren’t sliding on the hardwood floors.

“Levi isn’t dead, asshole.” I screamed, feeling my throat stinging from the force. “He’s alive. He’s hurt but he is alive you lying sack of shit!”

I could feel tears forming in my eyes as Jean’s grip tightened on my wrist. My other hand held the rope tightly, but I couldn’t think of what to do with it with one hand. My voice was all I had as a current weapon. The stairs were too close and the front door was too far. This plan was going to fail. It was going to fail hard, and I was going to die.

But at that moment, a hand wrapped around the door from the staircase and grabbed Jean’s leg which caused him to loosen his grip on my wrist.

“Marco, what the fuck?” Jean turned around and yelled, kicking wildly at Marco’s face until he got a hit in, right in the nose, which caused the boy to let out another wail filled with pain.

With Jean’s attention more on the other than myself, I took the chance to rip myself from his grip entirely. I bit the inside of my lip and without really thinking my actions through, I took the rope in both hands and threw it around Jean’s neck, squeezing it tight. I knocked the back of Jean’s legs hard with my feet, which forced him down on his knees as I continued to squeeze the rope. I pushed him onto his stomach with his hands under him, trying to keep him as restrained as possible. And as I sat myself on his back to keep him down, I screamed and I yelled in any way to get the attention of the neighbours. I could see the front door from where I was in the hall, but I was so far from it.

I continued to keep the rope tightly around Jean’s neck and he continued to thrash under me and my weight. Marco scrambled up onto his feet finally and took shaky steps beside me. He looked down at Jean as blood dripped from his face. Tears were streaking down his cheeks as he quietly cried. I tightened the rope and Jean began to thrash more as he slowly lost oxygen.

I looked back up to Marco to see the boy turn away towards the kitchen. And perhaps it was the wrong thing to do as one of Jean’s arms freed. He reached into his pocket to pull out a switchblade that was attached to his keys. My eyes widened as I tried to tighten the rope again. Jean was wildly swinging his arm, trying to get a hit in with the sharp blade, and as soon as it met my arm I couldn’t help but cry out, letting the rope loosen.

Jean took his chance from there and pushed himself up, making me fall onto my back. I pushed myself back, sliding across the hardwood as Jean walked towards me. There was more than anger in his eyes. There was murder. There was no chance I was getting out of this house alive.

I stopped sliding as soon as I got into the kitchen however. And much to my delight, Jean stopped in his tracks as well. Marco was walking through with a box of matches and it smelled of smoke. My eyes widened at the realization of what he was doing. All the elements on the stove were turned on high, the oven was on, and the cupboard doors were slowly burning. He set matches down on the counter and was working his way through the sitting area.

“What the _fuck_ are you doing?” Jean cried, looking at Marco with wide eyes.

“I’m done, Jean.” he muttered quietly as he set another match on the kitchen table. 

“What—“

“I said I’m fucking done, Jean. I can’t do it anymore.”

My eyes widened at the boy’s words and I turned my head up to see Jean watching Marco. It was the best opportunity I had to turn this around.

I pushed myself up quickly and crawled under Jean’s legs before getting up onto my feet to sprint to the door. I managed to get the door open before feeling Jean’s cool blade against my throat as he pulled me back into the house, wrapping his other arm around my waist to keep me from running.

I screamed. And I yelled. And I tried to make as much noise as possible.

“Shut the fuck up, Eren.” Jean whispered in my ear as he pressed the blade more against my throat. “Shut up.”

The smell of smoke was getting worse as Marco continued to light the house on fire. The crackling of fire was getting louder and louder as he made his way out of the kitchen and into the hall. Jean’s blade was becoming painful against the skin of my throat, but I didn’t dare move just yet. We both stood and watched as Marco set lit matches on the top of the staircase that lead to the basement, before setting the doorframe on fire. He continued his way through and we followed behind him as he walked into the living room. 

As we stood in the doorway of the living room, I took note to how close we were to the front door and I started yelling again.

“Shut the hell up, Jaeger or I’m going to have to shut you up.” Jean grumbled, pressing the blade against my skin even more. I could feel blood starting to drip from one of the ends of the new wound.

“Never.” I gasped out, eyes widening as the couch took to the fire quickly.

My eyes followed Marco around the living room as he lit the bottom of the curtains on fire, and I watched as the fire crawled up the fabric with ease. The boy made his way back to the the door way and looked at us both. There was no light in his eyes anymore, like I had seen before. He was done.

Marco closed the box of matches as smoke started to swarm around us. He dropped them on the floor and reached for his back pocket, retrieving my phone. I looked at it with wide eyes as he handed it to me, but Jean was too quick with his free hand and grabbed it before I did.

“Marco, what the actual fuck are you playing at?” Jean spat, and the other boy only shook his head.

“I’m not playing at anything, Jean.” he mumbled before walking back into the burning living room.

As Jean was distracted by his boyfriend, I tried to reach for my phone though it was no use. Though, I did manage to break free of his switchblade.

“You aren’t getting this back, asshole.” Jean grumbled, throwing it down the hall. I watched as it flew through the front door and landed on the front porch.

And then, between the burning curtains I saw a car. And it was a car I recognized.

And I started screaming.

And it was then that Jean lunged at me and I fell onto my back. And his fist met my face over and over. And in my desperation I threw punches back, and I felt a small victory when I heard a crack as my knuckles met his nose.

And he screamed in pain as I pulled away from him, only to have him grab my ankles and drag me backwards more into the smoky house.

The fight continued as we rolled on the floor. His knife was back in his hand and I could feel him getting slashes in at my sides and my arms as I tried to fight back. And the smoke was filling my lungs and I continued to scream and fight the man on top of me. I needed to get all the attention to the house.

But it was then that Jean’s hand tightly gripped my throat and it became harder to breathe. The smoke was building up faster and faster and it was almost too much. And Jean’s grip loosened on my throat but I felt his blade on my arm, and my back and my chest as he still continued to wildly swing it around.

And the fight continued in the doorway of the kitchen until the smoke surrounding us became too much and I felt a heavy weight on my body. Jean was out of energy and he started coughing. Which made me realize the smoke in my lungs made my chest hurt, and I started coughing.

Between the loss of blood and the smoke in my lungs, I was getting incredibly dizzy.

And with the last of the energy I could muster, I let out the loudest scream I could.

Someone, please help me. Someone, please hear me.

Levi, save me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [tumblr!](http://tscwrites.tumblr.com)


	12. Chapter 12

_From: Petra_

_I will be there in about ten minutes!_

I smiled at my phone and stretched my good arm above my head before shuffling on the couch to stand. I had busied myself in front of the television and made my way through another shitty horror movie on Netflix. And with Petra on the way over, I figured that the least I could do was get a pot of coffee ready.

I pushed myself up off of the couch a few moments later and put my weight on my crutches as I made my way to the kitchen. I set the crutches to the side and hobbled around awkwardly as I got the coffee machine filled with water, and the coffee filter filled with ground beans. 

I hummed softly to myself as I hit the button to start the machine, and continued to do so as I hopped over to the cupboard to grab two mugs before sitting them down by the machine. I turned myself to lean against the counter as I waited, listening to the machine make its awfully loud noises before the coffee began to pour into the pot.

As I waited, I pulled my phone from my pocket and scrolled looked over the message that had been sent to me from Eren’s phone.

“I miss you every day.” I mumbled to myself as I opened the photo for the hundredth time. My heart tugged painfully in my chest knowing that he was alive but in pain. The bruises scattered over his skin were dark and looked incredibly painful and I couldn’t bear to see him that way. Whoever was doing this to him was going to pay.

A few minutes after the coffee pot had stopped spitting out coffee, I heard a car door slam out front of the house signalling Petra’s arrival. I pulled the pot from the machine and poured the two cups of coffee so they’d be ready for when she got in the house. But minutes passed and she wasn’t inside and curiosity got the better of me.

I grabbed my crutches and made my way to the front door after sliding into my loafers. I opened the door and as soon as I stepped out onto the porch, my nose was met with smoke. And it didn’t take long for my eyes to find the source.

Petra was indeed here with her phone pressed to her ear. And my eyes widened as I realized just what I was seeing.

Jean and Marco’s home was on fire. The door was open and the flames were in their front room, lighting up the entire window. The two neighbours were not, however, in sight.

The sound of sirens in the distance made me feel better as I slowly hobbled down the stairs with the crutches in my hands.

“Petra!” I called once I had made it to the bottom.

She turned around with wide eyes, her phone still pressed to her ear. She was talking frantically to the people on the other end.

And that’s when I heard the screaming behind her voice. The screaming coming from the house. But soon after it was gone, and the sirens were closer and the lights were coming around the corner at the end of the street.

Firetrucks pulled up as I fell back to sit on the front stairs. Ambulances came soon after followed up by a few squad cars. You could never have enough emergency vehicles.

I watched with wide eyes as the fire fighters got ready. A few of the men pulled the hoses from the truck while a couple others made their way into the burning building with their suits on. I watched in awe as the ambulances got gurneys ready, and Auruo made his way around his car to talk to Petra who had finally hung up her phone.

The sirens were loud and I could feel a headache coming on, which forced me to close my eyes and drop my head in my hands. Everything was far too familiar, and the events of the year before were still all too fresh. The scent of smoke and the sound of fire crackling in the background of emergency vehicles.

I lifted my head back up when I heard men shouting. I squinted slightly as I watched the fire fighters moving back out of the house. The first man had Marco wrapped around his arm. I watched as Marco hobbled across the front lawn and into the care of one of the paramedics that was standing ready with a stretcher. 

My eyes went back to the front door of the house as another man brought out Jean in his arms. The boy was being held up bridal style, his head right back with his eyes closed. From where I sat, it was hard to see if he was still breathing.

“Levi!” I heard Petra yell, grabbing my attention immediately.

And I thought I was going to start breathing as another man had exited the house with someone in their arms.

“Levi, holy shit.” the girl continued to yell as she ran over to me. I immediately got up on my good leg and wrapped my arms around her as she helped me to where the man was carrying the boy.

“Oh my god.” I managed to get out as they got closer to the ambulance that we stood by.

The firefighter set the boy down on the stretcher and I could feel my eyes starting to burn. I could sort of feel Petra’s grip on me tighten, but the only thing I could concentrate on was him.

My eyes moved over his fragile looking body covered in soot, blood and bruises. The boxers he wore had holes and his hair was longer than I’d ever seen it, covering his forehead and ears. I wanted nothing more than to pick him up and hold him in my arms, but the paramedic soon joined us.

“Do you know this man?” she asked, pulling a clip board out from the end of the stretcher.

I slowly nodded and cleared my throat as I attempted to find my voice. I was finally finding comfort in Petra’s grasp as she held me upright on my good leg.

“My fiance, Eren Jaeger. He’s been missing since June.” I managed to get out as tears finally fell down my cheeks. And thankfully, it seemed to be enough for the paramedic as she made her way back to talk to Marco who was sitting upright on the stretcher, blankets wrapped around him and his arms on his knees.

And anger shot through me as I glared across to him. But he didn’t turn his head. He barely moved aside from the slight rocking back and forth.

But my eyes soon found their way back to Eren. He was still breathing, at least, but he looked battered.

“Hey, Levi?” I turned my head to look at Petra, who had tears in her eyes to mirror mine. “Since I have a key to your place, I’ll lock up. You go with Eren to the hospital, okay? I’ll let the force know that he’s found and to keep your neighbours on lockdown, you just go and be with him. I’ll get the word out to those that are most important.”

I slowly nodded my head and turned myself to wrap my around around her properly. I hid my face against her neck and let out a shaky sob. Relief was washing over my slowly, despite the fact that the boy I loved so much was not in tip top shape.

It took me a while to calm back down, but Petra didn’t do a single thing to make me move until I was ready. I lifted my head back up and looked down at her, and she offered me a bright smile as she lifted her hands up to brush my cheeks. The paramedics came by a moment later to lift Eren up into the back of the ambulance.

“I’m coming with you, if that’s okay?” I asked, trying to keep my voice calm. The woman that had been questioning us a short time before grinned and nodded, and as soon as Petra helped me up into the back of the ambulance, I bid her farewell.

“I’ll come by the hospital later with some clothes for Eren. Stay strong, Levi.”

All I could do was nod before the doors shut and I was alone with Eren and the paramedic. I shuffled around and sat, ignoring the pain shooting through my leg. I was slowly healing, but I wasn’t used to moving so much just yet. Eren was my priority, however. Once I was situated in a seat as comfortable as I would get, I finally let my eyes rest back on my fiancé. I reached over and slowly moved my hands over his arm, careful not to touch the cuts that adorned his skin. I bit the inside of my lip as my hand slinked down to take his hand in my own as my heart started to beat faster. His hand fit perfectly with mine, and despite his condition, my world seemed to be coming back together.

I watched as the paramedic hooked him up to machines to take his vitals, writing things down every so often.

“He’s going to be okay, right?” I asked, glancing from the woman to Eren as I squeezed his hand gently.

“More than likely. I think the woman that called, called just in time. All of his vitals, aside from his weak breathing, all seem to be relatively good. Especially for someone that’s been missing for as long as he has.” she said, scribbling notes down on the paper. “Once we get him to the hospital, we will do a full check up and get him up and operational once again.” She looked up at me with a grin. “Don’t worry, Mr. Ackerman, we’ll get your fiancé back to you.”

—————

_I want to paint you a picture_

I felt like I was floating, but I felt like I was drowning all the same. There was darkness all around me, and my chest hurt and felt like it was closing in on itself. I tried to move my limbs but I was frozen, as though my limbs were locked in place by ice. But it wasn’t cold, nor was it hot. It felt like nothing, but it felt overwhelming all at once. 

I wanted to scream and I wanted to yell for help, but the darkness only crowded me more. I had no voice. Where was I? Who was I? Had I died? Was this what death was like? An eternal emptiness until my soul was needed again?

_with the pain of my history_

No. I couldn’t have died. As the story goes, you should see your life flash before your eyes. I don’t recall seeing that.

I don’t recall seeing myself being born again. I don’t recall my parents raising me. Or my father beating me, or violating me. I don’t recall my sister, or my best friends or any memories of high school or college. Or work, or baking for my friends and family. I could not have died. This was heaven nor hell; this was nowhere. This was in-between. Was this a purgatory?

_’til my words are the colours_

Who’s voice is that? It is familiar, but it is not my own. It is tired and it sounds broken. Cracked. Like it just came back from a week long bender in Las Vegas. Who does that voice belong to?

Where is the beeping coming from? Why is everything so dark and why does my chest hurt in the way it does? I don’t smoke, I’ve never smoked more than a handful of joints. Are my youthful mistakes finally getting the better of me? Am I dying from lung cancer because I decided to smoke pot? Is that what it is?

_of the shadows from my memory_

Who’s voice is that? It does not go well with the beeping, and I want to let them know that they sing wonderfully despite the fact they sound broken. Are they dying of lung cancer too? Are we going to star in our own movie? Will we have a book written about us?

_spread it out on paper, and hang it up for all to see._

The voice is all to familiar but the beeping is warping the noise. Why is everything so dark? Why does my chest hurt?

_layer after layer give it back to the mystery_

God, is that you singing? I’ve never been a religious man or anything, so I really appreciate the kind words. The song you are singing is my song. I love that song because it reminds me of…

_I wanna lay it down_

“Levi….”

—————

The ambulance trip felt like it lasted a lifetime, as did all the tests that they put Eren through. All the while, I waited in the emergency waiting room where they had offered me my own wheelchair after quickly changing the bandages on my wounds. In the series of unfortunate events, one of the wounds on my leg had partially reopened and had started to bleed. The paramedics had been nice enough to help me out while Eren was going through tests.

I hadn’t heard from Petra, or any of the rest of the force on the status of Jean and Marco. I knew Marco was alive, though I was unsure about Jean. For all that it was worth, they could rot in hell for what they did.

“Mr. Ackerman?” I looked up from my hands that were placed in my lap to see a small, black haired nurse in a set of flower print scrubs. She grinned at me as our eyes met. “If you want to follow me, we have Eren set up in a room.”

I nodded slowly and reached down to push the wheels. I was grateful, however, when the nurse realized and went around behind me to push me after mumbling an apology.

“How is he doing?” I asked as he waited for the elevator at the end of the hall.

She stayed quiet as the doors opened and pushed me inside with her. She hit the button for the forth floor.

“He’s doing a lot better. We have all his wounds cleaned and bandaged. He’s breathing a lot easier now than he was. We have him on oxygen to help clear the smoke from his lungs. He was a bit dehydrated, so we have him hooked up to an IV. All of his vitals other than that are good.”

I slowly nodded as we made our way out of the elevator. The nurse stayed quiet as she pushed me through the halls before stopping in front of a door. 

It was then that I realized that I had begun to shake. Why was I so nervous to see Eren? I was nervous, but I was excited. He had come back to me in one piece. Broken, but still in one piece. I took a deep breath as the nurse shook me from my daze.

“Are there any guests coming to the hospital that we should know about? We generally do not let people in outside of visiting hours but—“

“As much as I would love him to have all the quiet right now, if Carla Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, Armin Arlert or Petra Ral show up, please let them up here.” I turned my head to look up at the nurse who was jotting the names down on her notepad. She nodded as she placed the pad back into her front pocket and moved around me to open the door.

The room was dark aside from the machines that surrounded Eren’s bed. He had been put into a single room, thankfully. The nurse wheeled me over to the side of his bed where he looked so small, despite the fact that he was taller than I was.

“How are the other two?” I whispered to the nurse before she could turn away. My eyes were glued on Eren’s sleeping face. He looked so peaceful and relaxed.

“They’re alive. Mr. Bodt was burned pretty badly and I think he’s talking to a doctor from psychiatric right now. He hasn’t stopped shaking or mumbling to himself since he was found in the house. The other, however, is still out like Eren is. Both their rooms are being guarded by police so you have nothing to worry about, sir. They’re also on the other side of the hospital, so you have nothing to worry about. Eren is safe now.”

I took a deep breathe and let it out slowly. “Thank you.”

“Of course. And use the buzzer if you need anything, okay? The nurses on right now are wonderful.”

I nodded and thanked her again before she left. And then I was alone with Eren.

I turned my head back to look at the boy and a small smile tugged at the corners of my lips. I shifted slightly and made my way up to stand on my good leg. I looked down at the sleeping boy and the tears started to form in my eyes, and this time I had no reason to hide them. I was happy that he was back. So fucking happy that it was overwhelming.

I moved my hands up to gently brush his cheeks with my thumbs. They had cleared away the soot and grime from the fire and the bruises on his face showed more than they had. His eye had a black circle starting to form, and purple blotches covered his cheeks and chin as a line was wrapped across his face and around his ears to blow oxygen into his nose. I leaned over and gently pressed my lips against his forehead as a quiet sob escaped my mouth.

“I missed you so fucking much and I love you more every day.” I whispered against his face. I wasn’t sure how deep he was asleep, but my words didn’t make him stir and I was thankful for that. He needed his rest. I kissed his forehead once more before moving back to sit in my chair before wheeling myself closer.

I slipped my hand through one of the spaces of the side railing and let my fingers lock with his. I squeezed his hand, and my heartstrings tugged when he didn’t respond to my touch. But it was still early, he was going to be okay.

He was going to be okay.

I leaned forward and let my head rest on the bed by his head. It was an awkward position to sit in, but I wanted to be close to the man that I had been without for the past five months.

Time ticked by and it must have been a few hours that I had been there. No one had come by to visit, and for that I was grateful. I was content with it just being Eren and myself in the dark hospital room. I let my eyes close though I knew I wouldn’t be sleeping for a long time even though I was exhausted. I quietly hummed to myself as my thumb brushed over the back of Eren’s hand.

And that’s when the song I had been humming had struck me, and a small smile spread across my face at the memory. The song that had been playing over dinner right before I had surprised Eren with a ring. The last song we had heard before we made it to the hotel roof.

“I want to paint you a picture, with the pain of my history.” I sang quietly, voice barely audible between the beeps of the machines on the other side of the bed. I squeezed Eren’s hand gently again as I continued the lines of the song, not even thinking about them as I’d heard the song so many times since that first time. “Spread it out on paper and hang it up for all to see…” I continued to mutter the words, turning my head to get a better look at the sleeping boy on the bed.

And it was then that I realized that his eyebrows at furrowed and he didn’t look as relaxed as he had before. “I wanna lay it down…” I trailed off with the last line of the song, not feeling right if I didn’t finish it. I slowly sat myself up as Eren’s eyes started to flutter open.

“Levi…”

His voice was hoarse, as was to be expected after inhaling all the smoke that he had. I watched as he blinked a few more times, trying to focus in the dim room. I shifted and stood up, letting go of his hand for a brief moment, only to hold it once more once my arm wasn’t through the side railing. I stood over him with my weight on my good leg, my eyes finding his brilliant green ones for the first time in months.

“Levi.” he whispered out again once he had focused on me, and a large smile spread across my face.

“I am so glad you are back.” I managed to get out, feeling my voice crack at the end. I leaned down and pressed my lips against his forehead, then both of his cheeks before finally his lips.

“I am so sorry.” he mumbled, which made me lift my head quickly.

I shook my hand and brought my free hand up to cup his cheek as tears welled in my eyes. “No, no. Love, you have nothing to be sorry about. Never, ever apologize for this.” I spoke softly as my thumb gently brushed his cheek.

Eren slowly shook his head and closed his eyes, and for a moment I thought he was going to go back to sleep but he spoke up.

“Jean made me believe you were dead.” I closed my eyes at his words and pressed my forehead against his as my hand moved into his hair. “He told me that you were shot and died, and it was Grisha that did it and for days I believed you were gone.”

“It’s gonna take a lot more than Grisha Jaeger to get rid of me.” I mumbled as he gasped for breath.

“And Marco is the one that told me you were okay. And I saw you were in pain and I wanted to escape even more than before because you needed me. I fought so hard to get back to you.”

I frowned slightly at his words and moved my head back. “You saw me?”

Eren’s eyes opened and closed as his eyebrows knitted together. “They - they had camera’s and a television of a live stream of the house. I saw you every day until Jean said you died and he turned it off.” He paused to take another breather before continuing. “On his business trip, Marco turned it back on and straightened out the lie.”

I slowly nodded and moved back to sit in my chair again, gripping Eren’s hand tighter (and this time getting a response).

“Is Marco okay?” Eren finally asked, slowly turning his head to the side to look at me where I had let my chin rest on the bed.

“Alive. They both are.”

Eren let out a long breath and nodded, closing his eyes. “Sing to me again?” he asked quietly, voice just barely audible.

But a small smile spread across my face, and I did.

* * * * * * * * * * * *  
* * * * * * * * * * * *

The weather was cool, but that was to be expected on the last day of October. It was early Halloween day, a Saturday, and the events taking place were huge. Monumental. You could say it was a memory in the making.

I stepped out of the house and wrapped my jacket tightly around my body and took a deep breath of fresh air, letting it out a few moments later. It was cool enough to see in front of my face, and a small smile cracked on my lips.

I made my way down the stairs with a bit of a limp before making my way to my car. After buckling up and starting the engine, I backed out of the driveway and made my way into town. It was early, and the majority of the townspeople were still in bed but I had plans. I had an appointment with one Sasha Braus.

I pulled up in front of the bakery ten minutes before I meant to arrive, though as soon as I walked through the door I was greeted by a bright smiling face and a mug of coffee.

“Thank you, darling.” I said, taking the mug from the girl before following her to the back. “You have far too much energy for this early in the day.” I added with a laugh, walking through the swinging doors to the kitchen.

“I’m sorry, I’m excited.” she admitted, leading me to the back of the kitchen where I saw icing sugar all over the place. Out of habit, I pulled my limbs closer to my body to keep any evidence off of my jacket. “How does this look?”

My eyes darted up from the mess of sugar and was met with a two tier cake. The icing was a dark purple with lighter purple rosettes around the edges. My eyes widened as I looked around and to the top where two grooms stood. And I couldn’t help but laugh at the detail put into the ornaments. Being the holiday that it was, both grooms were holding their heads in their hands, but grinning all the same.

“This is actually perfect. It’s simple, which is what we wanted, but perfect.”

I could see Sasha hopping from one foot to the other out of the corner of my eye and I couldn’t help but laugh softly.

“I am so glad you like it. Cake isn’t my forte, you know. But I couldn’t make Eren do it.”

“No, there is something definitely wrong about making your own cake.” I said, finally turning away from the cake and towards Sasha. I set my coffee mug down before moving to wrap my arms around her middle, accepting the squeeze she gave back in return. “I owe you for this.”

“Don’t worry about it, Levi. It’s been a rough year, you two deserve it. You know I’d do anything for you guys.”

I pulled back with a raised eyebrow. “Well in that case…”

“Hey, don’t get too crazy now.” she said with a laugh, shaking her head. “Finish your coffee and relax for a while. You’ve got a big day ahead of you.”

I picked my coffee back up and nodded. “That I do, my friend.”

It wasn’t long before I was making my way back home. I did indeed have a long day ahead of me, but it was a day that I had been waiting for, for a long time.

It had been a year since Eren had come back, and it had been a year of recovering and doctors appointments and therapy. Eren was back to being Eren, and I was back to living in some sort of dream state. My life with this boy was about to start a new chapter, and I was excited. And nervous.

The butterflies in my stomach that had been far too calm since the day I had proposed had managed to find their energy. And as I sat in our bedroom, alone, I tried to will them away.

Our wedding had been planned the year before to a T. Everything from the catering, to the florist to the DJ — everything had been planned and everything had been postponed. We didn’t luck out in having the same catering, or the same DJ but in the end it all worked out as we had been landed with our original first choices from the year before, as we had settled for second best.

I looked at the time and stood up, wincing a bit from the old wounds that still snagged in my leg every so often. I had gotten quite used to living with the pain in my shoulder and my leg, and I was slowly learning that I couldn’t exert myself as much as I used to. My hours at work had been cut, and I was mostly an in station employee.

Although, it meant I got my own office and I got a raise. I wasn’t complaining.

I made my way down the stairs and checked my phone once I had made it to the bottom. Petra would be arriving in a few minutes with my clothes, and we’d be heading off to church.

I was finding it rather strange that our wedding was being held in a church on Halloween, but all the same, the vibe was pretty great.

And just in time, Petra arrived and I made my way out the door once again. After locking up, I hobbled down the stairs and down the front path before sliding into her car.

“Nervous?” she asked almost immediately, glancing at me before turning her car around to head back onto the main road.

“That’s the understatement of the year, Petra.” I admitted with a small smile.

Time moved slowly, as was to be expected. We had made it to the church before Eren had his family and as much as I wanted to see him when he arrived, I had sworn up and down that I would make myself wait. I sat in a room at the back of the church and got ready. We had a whole year to think of overly cheesy couples costumes to better our last idea. But in the end, we came back to ripping up old thrift store suits to become zombie grooms.

Boring and completely expected. But it was still fun to make.

It was right before the start of the ceremony that Armin came to my room. He grinned at me as he walked through the door wearing a black cape. He had his hair slicked back with a small top hat, and under the cape was a nice looking tuxedo.

“Ah yes, Count Armin, thank you for joining me.” I greeted with a smile which got a laugh out of him, as well as a bow. “How is zombie number two holding up?”

Armin closed the door behind him and stepped more into the room, scratching his neck. “He had a bit of a mental breakdown in the car on the way here, but Mikasa has managed to get him back under control.” he said quietly, moving to sit on the edge of a couch that sat along one of the walls of the room. “He woke up a few times last night asking for you, but then remembered what was happening and calmed back down.”

I nodded slowly and bit the inside of my lip. “He’s been having a lot of trouble sleeping since he was discharged from the hospital. They did a lot of tests in the psych ward once he was moved there for those few weeks. I mean, he’s been home for the better part of the year, which is good. It’s still gonna take time.” I paused for a moment and sighed. “Recovery isn’t instantaneous as much as we all hope.”

Armin nodded and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “His demons haunt him in his sleep, and he wasn’t used to sleeping alone. I joined him in his room and he wanted to call you, but at the same time he didn’t want to wake you. He calmed back down and man, how do you sleep with him holding you with a vice grip?”

I couldn’t help but laugh quietly, shaking my head. “You get used to it. His breakdown was caused by all that though?”

Armin slowly shook his head. “No, this was an actual full on panic attack. Like, one that I understand that anyone would have.” he glanced up at me with a smirk. “Like, ‘Oh god, I’m getting married. Does my hair look okay? Oh god, I’m going to be sick. What if Levi thinks I look horrendous?’ and things like that.”

I laughed a bit harder than I meant to and covered my mouth with my hand. “He’s such a nerd. I love him.”

But from here, I am not going to tell you the details of the wedding. It was a wedding like any other, but with costumes. There were fairies and ghouls, mad hatters and rabbits and television and movie characters. There was music and dancing, and champagne and toasts and cake. And laughter, and singing and more dancing.

But my eyes stayed on the one boy that matter the most to me. The one boy that I learned that I couldn’t live well without. The boy that was recovering from a terrible experience alongside myself.

The boy in my arms with his bright green eyes looking into my own blue ones. With his arms wrapped tightly around my waist as my own were hooked around his neck as we swayed to the music in the middle of the dance floor in a banquet room beside the main church. In my mind, we were the only ones that existed in that moment and it was a moment I was never going to forget. No one would ever take this boy away from me again.

Jean was locked up for life for all he had done to Eren, and before Eren. Marco had been locked up for ten years, much to my own displeasure. Despite everything, Eren had explained Marco’s story to everyone in the courtroom. Multiple times. And the story never faltered, and it matched alongside Marco’s. I wanted to see him gone for a long time, but ten years was what was settled. And Marco’s family were surprised to know that the boy had been alive the whole time.

It was a bizarre turn of events for everyone involved.

But that didn’t matter. Because my boyfriend was in my arms.

Rather, my _husband_ was in my arms and safe. And I vowed to protect him at all costs, whether it cost me my other arm and my other leg. Whether it cost me my life; I would die for this man standing in front of me.

I slowly moved a hand from the back of his neck to rest on his cheek before standing up to press my lips against his. The kiss was soft and innocent in every way; we weren’t about to put on a show for our friends and family. I smiled at him, and he smiled back and I felt my heart swell two sizes too big.

“I love you, Eren Jaeger-Ackerman.” I muttered quietly for only him to hear, which made the smile on his lips grow wider.

“And I love you, Levi Ackerman-Jaeger.” He paused for a moment before shaking his head. “We need to work on that, because it sounds so awkward.”

And it was then that I laughed louder than I wanted to, throwing my hand over my mouth. And it was then that I fell for the boy more at the sound of his own laughter. The laughter I had missed all too much in the last year and a half.

Eren was back, and he was safe and he was mine. And I loved him more every day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh I can't believe it's over and I totally ended it on a cheesy note but I don't even care at all because I think everyone deserved it! Thank you all that stuck with this from the beginning, and thank you to those that joined part way through and continued to come back :D I enjoyed writing this far more than I thought I would, and I really do hope that you enjoyed it just as much! Thank you to all those that left comments and kudos and left me nice messages on tumblr! They're the fuel that keeps this writing machine going~
> 
> Ah, thank you again! Also, [this was the song that Levi was singing!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOL2v0IPaAM)
> 
> [tumblr!](http://tscwrites.tumblr.com)


End file.
